


Sunbreak

by rossophantasma



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Canon, Angst, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Lots of Angst, Romance, Slow Burn, listen i have a lot of opinions about their reunion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-02-10 06:36:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12906243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rossophantasma/pseuds/rossophantasma
Summary: Ruby, Weiss, and Yang have finally met up in Mistral after spending a year apart. Everyone has their own job to do in preparation for the supposed attack on Haven Academy and, to her delight, Yang's involves taking up her old hobby of beating up questionable guys in bars. Although she's worked hard to heal from the events at Beacon, her whole world is turned upside down again when Blake Belladonna finally reunites with their team. In the process of rebuilding their friendship, Yang is forced to question both her understanding of herself and the nature of that very relationship.





	1. Struck by surpurrise

**Author's Note:**

> Written because the build up to their reunion is driving me insane and I needed to let it out somehow LMAO. Not everything will be consistent with canon because I started writing this before volume 5 aired, but I'll try to line things up when I can! I'm actually quite happy with the way things have been going this volume so far, but I have a lot of cute ideas and wanted to try my own hand at this. It'll be a long ride but stick with me because I promise it'll be worth it! :)

She walked back towards their house, a slight skip in her step. All in all, today had been a pretty good day. Although she hadn't managed to gather much new information, she _had_ gotten to smack around some sleezy guys and in the process had gained a few new contacts to investigate. Even though life in Mistral had become sort of routine, she didn’t really mind. It was satisfying just to finally feel like she was _doing_ something.

Since there wasn’t too much actual fighting to be done yet, they mostly had been tasked with uncovering what they could about the enemy’s plan for Haven. They had divided up the work. Qrow was doing, well, whatever he usually does except now with a shadow in the form of Oscar following him everywhere. He had begrudgingly allowed this arrangement at the insistence of Ozpin, who had said (in the words of Qrow), “blah blah blah ‘training’ blah blah ‘your duty.’” For their part, Ren, Nora, and Jaune spent the days conversing with regular citizens, hoping to gain a better understanding of the class divide between the elite and the commoners. It was likely that Salem would seek to exploit any existing tensions in the kingdom, just as she had in Beacon, so understanding those tensions was key to predicting her next moves.

Ruby and Weiss had been working closely with Winter Schnee, discussing outside intel and going on occasional missions. Ruby would never give her details, though, to Yang’s frustration. Something about “classified information” and “please don’t make me tell you, Weiss would KILL me.” She couldn’t help but feel a little bit jealous of these missions - how long had it been since _she’d_ gone on one? Even with a missing limb, she was still part of team Rwby.

If she was being truly honest with herself, though, her exclusion was probably for the best. As much as she hated to admit it, she wasn’t really ready for any intense fighting yet. A few brawls at the local taverns, fine, but even those still sometimes left her shaking after. She had been making great progress, but occasionally one of her opponents reminded her a little too much of _him_ . All too sudden there would be a cruel laugh, a flash of red, blinding, _agonizing_ pain, and she’d wake up to find herself sprawled on a beer-soaked floor. They were just flashbacks, but they always felt so _real_. Sometimes bystanders helped her up, sometimes they sniggered, but it was always a painful reminder that she hadn’t fully recovered yet. That maybe she never would.

She tried to focus on the progress she had made, though, and she devoted herself fully to the tasks she could do. It just so happened that, despite her handicap, she was the perfect candidate for the job nobody else had really wanted.

During their time at Beacon, they'd learned all about how the stark class divide between the rich and the poor had promoted the growth of a vast underground network of illicit activity. For the most part, dealings were low-level crimes: selling goods in secret to avoid taxes, or selling illegal products like animal skins or recreational drugs. But it would be ignorant to deny the presence of more skeevy practices. It was no secret that if you needed a particularly dangerous weapon or the skills of a trained assassin, the black market was the place to go. Many former hunters and huntresses, disillusioned by the thankless nature of their line of work, had even turned to the market to find paid jobs. It wasn't the most honorable use of their skills, but it was a harsh world and you had to get by somehow.

Hearing about something in a classroom, however, was completely different from experiencing it firsthand.

Yang had always pictured the black market as, well... a literal market. Packed with stands devoted to selling knives and leather, teeming with buckets of anything from stolen dust to frog’s legs, with people constantly bustling about and fleeing the second anyone got a whiff of the cops.

The black market of Mistral, as it turned out, was completely different from what she had pictured, and immensely more fascinating.

Of course there was no organized place for such a gathering: even if the location did change it would be too easily found by the authorities. No, the underground network was just that - a network. It was all about where you went, and who you knew. You could get anything you wanted, if you knew the right people and had enough lien.

Or in Yang’s case, if you had enough charm.

She might be good at using her fists, but she was also learning that she could be a skilled manipulator when she wanted to be. Who knew that you didn't always have to punch someone to get information out of them? In fact, it turns out it was easier to get people talking when they still had teeth, and their faces weren't swollen shut. She silently reminded herself to thank her dad for the lesson next time she saw him. She’d discovered that navigating the market was all about working your connections, about playing to people’s weaknesses.

Fortunately for Yang, most people’s weakness tended to be extremely attractive girls. All she had to do was play the part of the dumb blonde party girl, and then a few drinks was enough to get most people talking. She was always gone before they realized that, one, they would not be taking her home, and two, they probably would be out of a job once morning came. She was kept safe by her friendships with practically all of the bartenders in Mistral, who were more than thrilled by all the business she’d brought them.

She smiled, pleased with all that she had learned in such a short time. Although she missed fighting, it was comforting to know that combat wasn’t all she was good for. She was still in action, taking another step each day towards helping both her team and herself. She hadn’t lost everything.

Yang finally opened the door to the house, tripping over the mountain of shoes that stubbornly refused to disappear despite many angry complaints. She rolled her eyes. Guess that's what happens when you share a house with like, how many of them were there now? 7 people? 8? With everyone constantly coming in and out she could barely keep track. Still, there was a suspicious number of shoes blocking the door today... they'd need to have another talk soon about the existence of something called a closet.

She also noticed an absurd amount of rose petals scattered everywhere amidst the shoes. “Ruby, what the fuck?” She cursed out loud, wondering what on earth had caused her sister’s outburst of excitement this time.

As she threw her coat onto the equally overflowing coat rack, she heard sounds of laughter coming from the common room. She made her way down the hall, sidestepping all the petals, and smiled as she mentally prepared for the nightly team meeting. After months of being alone, it was a welcome change to have so many people constantly around. The hustle and bustle of daily life was a surprising comfort, something she hadn't realized was missing all those months.

"I'll be right back, just grabbing some more snacks!" An excitable voice came drifting into the hall, followed by a bouncing, small black-haired girl with a wide smile on her face.

Ruby Rose turned out into the hall, but stopped dead in her tracks upon spotting Yang.  
"Oh! Yang, hi." Her smile wavered.

Yang looked at her sister quizzically. "Hey Rubes, what's up?"

Ruby looked down, shifting uncomfortably and tapping her two pointer fingers together. "Oh, you know, just... hanging out."

She put her hands on her hips. "Ruby, we both know you're the worst liar ever."

“Umm…” Her sister teetered from her heels to her toes, as if trying to decide what to say. 

Growing impatient, Yang made to move past Ruby into the room. “Well if you won’t tell me…”

An arm jutted out to block her way. “WAIT!” A panicked expression had appeared on Ruby’s face. Yang waited.

“Okay, before you go in there, I should warn you.”

Yang furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Warn her about what? Surely nothing bad could have happened, otherwise her sister wouldn’t have looked so happy just seconds ago. Maybe Nora had pulled a prank and gotten syrup all over the floor again?

“Uhh. Well, see, the thing is…” Ruby bit her lip. “Someone’s here.”

That wasn't a response she expected to hear. “Wh- who, what?” Her confusion grew, along with a distant anxiety that had been brewing in her stomach since she’d walked in the door.

Ruby sighed. “Why… don’t you see for yourself.” She tentatively retracted her arm, finally allowing Yang to pass.

Taking a deep breath, wondering who the hell could possibly be here, she entered the room.

She immediately froze.

Sitting on the couch, smiling and talking with Nora and Jaune and the rest of her friends, was a girl with raven hair. Raven hair, with a pair of sleek cat ears on top. The girl didn’t notice her at first, busy with the people surrounding her. But she eventually sensed another presence in the room, and slowly looked up to the doorway.

Golden eyes met lilac ones.   

Blake Belladonna jumped to her feet.  
“Yang–”

Suddenly she could neither breathe nor move; her mind had detached itself completely from her body. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, she wanted to rush over to the girl who had abandoned her and punch her, or hug her, she wasn’t quite sure which.

With her mind frozen in time, she felt her body take a step back. It was as if she was being pulled by some invisible force that was determined to maintain the already too short distance keeping them apart.

Reacting to this, Blake took a step forward, reaching out her hand.  
“Yang, wait!”

The sudden movement spurred Yang back to life.

Unlike most people, fight or flight had never been a question for Yang. She had always fought. _Always._  Fleeing was never even a consideration. Her body was hardwired to fight: her semblance was proof of that.

But for the first time in her life, Yang Xiao Long couldn’t fight.

She was suddenly running, out of the room, down the hall, hurdling over the pile of shoes and slamming her way through the front door out into the open air.   

Once outside, she didn’t stop running. Blinded by tears she didn’t remember forming, she let the invisible force pull her, passed the gardens and up a never-ending set of stairs. She took them two at a time, never once slowing down, until she finally emerged at the top of the city lookout.

She collapsed onto the concrete, letting the tears fall down hot and heavy now.

 _How could she do this_ ? How could she just show up here, now, of all times? After _months…_ months of Yang laying in bed, wondering what she’d done wrong, wondering why everyone always left her. Months of feeling useless and broken, and alone. So alone...

And finally, _finally_ when she’d made some progress, when it had been weeks since she’d woken up in the middle of the night screaming, Blake had come crawling back into her life.

 _How dare she_?

“ARGHHHHHH!”

She punched the ground, sending an explosion of rubble into the air around her. Her punches continued, alternating between her robotic hand and her human one, before finally slowing as her aura diminished and exhaustion caught up with her.

Her breathing was heavy now, and her vision was obscured by either sweat or tears. Probably both.

“You done throwing a tantrum, kid, or do you think the ground deserves a little more punishment?”

She jerked her head up at the sudden voice. Through her blurry eyes, she could make out the silhouette of a man with spiked black hair and a red cape.

“What are you doing here, Qrow?” she said angrily, through gritted teeth.

“I’m here to keep an eye on you. Make sure you don’t do anything stupid.” He gestured towards the blood dripping from her fist. “Although, it seems I might be a little late.”

She looked down, a wave of defeat finally rolling over her.

A hand entered her frame of view.

“Take a walk with me, kiddo.”

 

* * *

“You’ve really gotta learn how to control that anger of yours, kid. One day it’s gonna get you killed.” Qrow flipped open his flask and tilted it back into his mouth.

She stamped her foot in frustration. “I’m trying! In fact, I was doing quite well until _she_ decided to show up and ruin everything.”

“Ruin everything? She’s barely been here an hour.”

“You know what I mean!”

He merely sighed and handed her the flask. She didn’t care enough to question it, so she took a sip. Fire coursed through her veins, burning her throat. Normally she’d chide her uncle for his poor taste in booze, but tonight she relished the burn. Anything to distract her from how she felt.

He gestured her to sit down on a nearby ledge, and then was silent for a minute.

Finally he spoke.

“When Raven left all those years ago, my team completely fell apart.”

Yang looked up in surprise; Team STRQ was not a subject that was lightly breached.

“She had her reasons of course, but we were the ones who had to deal with the consequences of her decision. Your dad, Summer, and I.”

“Things were… never the same again. We tried to keep it together, but no matter what we did we could always feel the void that Raven had left behind.”

“It wasn’t like the void of losing a teammate in battle, either. In a way, it was worse. At least when someone dies, you remember them as they were and every day you fight for their memory.”

“With your mom… it was a betrayal. We had to live with the fact that the woman who was still out there was someone we no longer knew. Maybe someone we never even knew to begin with.”

Yang balled her hands into fists. On the list of people she didn't want to talk about right now, Raven was the absolute last. Right after Blake. “Look, I get what you're saying, but this isn’t the same!”

“You’re right, it’s not!” Impatience filled his voice now. “Your teammate came back. That’s more than Raven ever did.”

He took another drink.

“Right now you’re at a crossroads, kid. Will Team RWBY reunite, or will it fall apart forever like Team STRQ?”

She let his words sink in, before shaking her head in frustration. “So you expect me to forgive her just like that, after everything she did?”

“I never said anything about forgiving her. Forgiveness is something that’s earned.” He emptied the flask. “All I’m saying, is that it seems to me as though she’s taken the first step. Now it’s your turn.”

He stood up, walking away. When she looked up again, she saw a red-eyed crow flying into the night sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe forgive me for that chapter title, I couldn't resist!
> 
> This chapter was definitely an example of what I said about there being some inconsistencies with canon (e.g. the layout of their house, Winter still being in Mistral), but I hope it was still enjoyable! Feedback is always appreciated <3


	2. A fighting chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow, thank you guys for the positive response! Posting will probably be sporadic because I have some chapters already written while others are still mere ideas. But for now, a short chapter from Blake's perspective :) I promise the next one will be soon!

Her hand remained outstretched, grasping the empty air for something that was no longer there. Slowly she let it fall to her side, alongside her gaze. Blake blinked back tears, knowing that she had no right to them.

The room had gone silent, all previous merriment dissipated in the midst of the awkward tension.

A voice sighed. “Well. I’m not sure what you expected.”

She clenched her fist at Weiss’ words. “Yeah.”

Her teammate was right - she _had_ expected this. But it was one thing to imagine something and another entirely to actually experience it. She’d played the scene over and over countless times in her head, but the real thing was so much worse.

A small hand gently squeezed her shoulder. She looked up to meet the silver eyes of her team leader. “Things will be okay, Blake. She just needs some time.”

Her own amber eyes looked desperately back, wishing she could believe Ruby’s words. “Yeah,” she said again, shrugging off Ruby’s hand. “I think I’d like… to be alone for a little while, if that’s okay.”

Ruby smiled understandingly. “Of course. I can take you to your room.”

“I don’t know if I should…”

“Stay.” Ruby's tone was resolute.

She nodded.

Putting on a brave face, Blake turned back to her friends. “It was good to see you guys. I missed you all very much.”

Their cheerful replies of “we love you!” and “welcome back!” followed her out the door.

Searching for something to talk about as they walked down the hallway, Ruby started explaining the mechanics of the house. “Sooo you saw the common room, that’s where we eat meals and play board games. Oh! And we have nightly meetings there too.”

“Across from that is the kitchen, which tends to be a bit of a mess. We currently only have 3 forks because SOMEONE keeps taking them for lunch and forgetting to put them back.” She huffed at the struggles of communal living.

Further down the hall, they stopped in front of a set of four doors, two on either side. Ruby pointed to the left. “This room is my and Yang’s. The one after that is Uncle Qrow’s, and across from his is Jaune, Nora, Ren, and Oscar. Oh, uh, long story. He’s out with Qrow right now, you’ll probably meet him tomorrow,” she added after noticing the confused look on Blake’s face.

“Aaaand this one’s yours! You’ll be sharing with Weiss, who’s going to have to deal with not getting her own room anymore.” She dropped her voice. “Although, if you ask me, I think she’ll be happy - she’s been very… affectionate since she got back. I guess Atlas was pretty lonely.”

She moved aside, letting Blake enter the room. Inside were two twin beds. Aside from one small suitcase and a familiar rapier resting against the wall, there were no signs that the room was even being used at all.

Blake set her bag down on the unoccupied bed, smiling quietly to herself. It was just like Weiss to keep her room as tidy as humanly possible. At Beacon, her neatness had been a stark contrast to the messy lifestyles of Ruby and Yang. Blake _was_ surprised to note, however, the absence of the pile of luggage that usually accompanied Weiss. It seemed that the heiress had changed a lot over the past year. They all had.

“Let me know if you need anything else! Bathroom is at the end of the hall, and breakfast is at 8,” said Ruby.

Blake jumped slightly at Ruby’s voice. Lost in her thoughts, she’d completely forgotten about the other girls presence. “Thanks, Ruby,” she replied.

Ruby smiled widely. “No problem, Blake! Have a good night!”

On her way out, she paused at the door. “And Blake?” Their eyes met again.

“I’m really glad you’re back.” The door closed softly.

And this time, Blake believed her. Of all of her teammates, she had known that Ruby would welcome her back the easiest. In fact, the girl had almost drowned them both in rose petals when she first answered her knock on the front door.

Flopping down on the bed, a heavy sigh escaped her lips.

She could feel her stomach churning, feelings of dread, guilt, and regret bubbling to the surface.

She hadn’t seen Yang since the fall of Beacon. The last image she’d had was of the girl lying on a stretcher with what was left of her arm covered in bloodied bandages. She remembered feeling a pain that had nothing to do with her stomach wound, a despair deeper than she’d ever experienced before. And then she’d lost herself to the ever-familiar shadows.

As she lay in bed contemplating the events that had led her here, she couldn’t get rid of the image of Yang in the common room that had seared into her very soul - shocked lilac eyes that flashed quickly to red, and a single tear so brief that she wasn’t sure anyone else had even seen it.

Blake hated herself, and, despite what Sun had said to her back in Menagerie, wasn't sure if Yang would ever forgive her. She wasn't even sure if she deserved forgiveness. 

And yet here she was, barging into Yang’s house without a single warning.

Because she had to try.

She had made her decision to finally stop running away from her problems, and she intended to carry it out.

It was that decision that had brought her here, to the place where the White Fang was. Where Adam was. The thought terrified her, but there was only one way to finally eradicate the fear that had plagued her life for the past three years.

Here, to the place where her friends were too. Somehow she wasn’t surprised; they were all facing the same battle - it only made sense for them all to end up in Mistral.

Locating them had been easy - she’d just had to follow the red petals Ruby left everywhere. Plus, a large group of troublemaking foreign kids tended to attract a lot of attention.

Gathering up the courage to actually see them, well, that was an entirely different story.

She’d sat on it for days, hiding on a nearby roof that was close enough to the house to give her a view of her friends entering and leaving. It was only when Sun found out was she was doing that she’d finally gotten the push she needed.

> _“What are you waiting for?”_
> 
> _“The right time.”_
> 
> _“There’s never going to be a right time. They’re going to find out you’re here sooner or later - do you want it to be on your terms or not? Besides, I want to see them too and I’m tired of waiting!”_

After the terrifying thought of bumping into Yang at the market flashed through her mind, she’d finally conceded.

Of course Yang hadn’t been there with the rest of them, though, once she’d finally made it past the front door. It was the universe’s way of punishing her a little more.

She’d considered leaving before Yang returned, but a voice in her head told her that if she did so, she would lose Yang forever.

And Blake didn’t think she could handle letting her go a second time.

So she’d sat and waited on the unfamiliar couch, in the unfamiliar house, with anxiety growing in her stomach with every second of Yang’s absence.

And as suddenly as she’d appeared, she was gone.

A cruel irony, really, that this time Blake wasn’t the one running.

And although currently every single one of her senses were telling her to flee, that Yang clearly didn’t want to see her, this time she was going to stay and fight.

Because Yang Xiao Long was someone worth fighting for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this was short, but I still hope you enjoyed it! 
> 
> It's been a lot of fun thinking about all of them living in a house together. I'm pretty sure it would be absolute chaos xD For anyone who hasn't lived communally before, it's a Time - I recently spent a few months living in a house with 20+ people and let me tell you, forks were an extremely hot commodity.
> 
> Also shoutout to Sun for being the best bro anyone could ask for. I really disliked him in the first few volumes, but he's finally growing on me! Just as long as he stays in the friendzone :p


	3. Flavors of Mistral

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of tranquility before the storm.

BEEP BEEP BEE-

The jarring noise cut off as a fist connected with the small piece of metal sitting innocently on the bedside table.

“Oh fuck.” She wrestled her way out of the tangled mess of blankets, scrambling to make sure she hadn’t just smashed her scroll to pieces.  

Confirming that there had been no damage, she let out a sigh of relief. Just another habit that she _really_ needed to work on.  

Stretching, Yang slowly regained consciousness. A glance towards Ruby’s vacant bed told her that her sister had already gotten up to face the day. Even after years, Yang was still always the last one to wake up. 

Still holding her scroll, she reached with her other arm for the glass of water on the table. Too late, she realized her mistake.

 _Oh. Right._  

Most mornings were like this, with her forgetting that she didn’t have two limbs anymore. Although it never felt exactly like a real arm, the prosthetic had turned out to be a surprisingly good replacement. Most days she even forgot it was there, and she couldn’t exactly complain about its awesome capabilities. Could a _real_ arm shoot bullets? Or projectile itself across the room to win an arm wrestling match? She didn’t think so.  

But it was these times when she wasn’t wearing the new arm that she was still trying to get used to. She didn’t want to feel like she needed a replacement in order to feel whole again, but it was still hard to accept that having only one arm was her normal now.

Shaking off her unease, she reached for the metal arm and clicked it into place. She finally drained the glass of water. Her head was pounding, but she couldn’t figure out why.

She hadn’t accidentally gotten drunk last night, had she? No, that wasn’t right. She distinctly remembered walking home as the sun was setting. A crease formed on her forehead as she tried to remember. She’d walked into the house, tripped over a mess of shoes and roses, and then…

“Fuck.” A groan escaped her lips as she fell back against the bed.

Right. Blake.

That was a thing she had to deal with.

She slammed a pillow into her face, hoping it would suffocate her.

God fucking damn it. Stupid Blake Belladonna, walking back into her life and ruining her morning.

She laid in bed feeling sorry for herself for a few more minutes, before the increasing noise in the hallway told her to get it together if she wanted breakfast.

And coffee. Lots of coffee.

With a final groan, Yang pulled herself out of bed and changed into her day clothes.

Well, at least she still looked good, she thought as she checked herself and her new outfit out in the mirror.

A brief image came to mind of Blake in _her_ new outfit…

She furiously shook her head.

No, Xiao Long, focus. You’re supposed to be mad at her.

Which she was. But some of the fire from the night before had subsided, replaced by dread at what she had to do.

 _“Now it’s your turn.”_ Qrow’s words rang in her ears.

She supposed it was. If not for Blake’s sake, or for her own sake, then for the sake of their team.

Besides, if Blake was staying in the house like Ruby had told her then she didn’t want to deal with any more awkwardness than she already had to.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the bedroom door.

Thankfully, the coast seemed to be clear. She beelined for the kitchen, which was also empty. The clock on the stove told her she only had a few minutes, so she downed a couple cups of coffee and picked out a banana.

“Hurry up, Yang, you’re going to be late!” A bubbling redhead raced past her down the hall.

“So are you!” She called back.

Every day was the same, with Nora and her always being the last ones ready. Normally it wouldn’t matter, since she usually worked alone, but today she’d decided to accompany team JNR since they were all heading towards the same part of town. 

And gods forbid you kept Ren waiting.

Snatching up her banana, she raced out of the kitchen to quickly grab her scroll and Celica from her room. Possessions acquired, Yang ran back out of the bedroom, her head down immersed in the missed messages on her scroll.

OOMF.

Her swift pace came to an abrupt halt as she collided with something unseen in front of her.

Something alive. Something with feline ears, which were now laying completely flat.

They both stood frozen, eyes locked.

 _Damn it_. _She’d been so close._

Blake looked down, quickly muttering an apology. She made to start walking again.

Yang took a deep breath. _You can do this, Xiao Long._

She put up her arm, blocking Blake’s path. “Wait.”

Blake stopped. She waited for the blonde girl to speak.

Yang forced her face into a smile before finally meeting those amber eyes, unreadable as ever.

“Hey Blake. I’m sorry for running last night. I was just surprised.”

“Oh… it’s okay,” the Faunus girl stammered.

Silence followed, both of them unsure of what to say next.

Yang scratched the back of her head awkwardly. “Well, uh, welcome back.”

A brief look of desperation flashed across Blake’s face. “Yang, I-”

“YAAAAAANG GET YOUR BUTT OUT HERE! IT’S TIME TO GO.” Nora’s voice called from the front door.

Relief flooded over Yang. She reminded herself to thank Nora later. Although she was willing to put on a brave face, she was absolutely not ready for that conversation yet. Not here, not now.

So instead she reassembled her face into a smile. “Sorry Blake; duty calls. Guess I’ll catch you later.”

Not pausing to meet Blake’s eyes, she yelled “I’M COMING!” and sprinted down the remainder of the hall.

It wasn’t until she stopped to put on her boots that she noticed how badly she was shaking.

This… wasn’t going to be easy.

* * * 

“Hmm if you were a Grimm, what kind would you be?” Nora was walking a foot above them on a ledge, her arms outstretched for balance. Even with the added height she barely reached Ren and Jaune.

“Oh, I know!” Not bothering to wait for an answer, she continued. “Ren you would totally be something silent, but deadly… like an anaconda! Oooo or a bunch of anacondas that combine to form ONE GIANT ANACONDA.”

“Nora, I don’t think that’s a thing,” Ren responded.

She ignored him and continued.

“I’d want to be something really big and super strong. Like a rhinoceros!”

The four of them were slowly making their way to the lower tier of Mistral, at a pace slower than Yang would have liked. She supposed she couldn’t complain, though, considering that most days she wasn’t even awake at this point. Ren and Nora were slightly ahead of Jaune and her. She hadn’t really spoken since leaving the house, her head still wrapped up in her unexpected encounter with Blake.

Unfortunately, the absence of her usual upbeat attitude did not go unnoticed.

“Are you okay, Yang?” Jaune asked her quietly.

She flinched. As likable and well-meaning as Jaune was, he was _not_ the person she wanted to talk to about any of this. “Oh yeah, just tired.” She fixed a smile onto her face again. “Mornings aren’t really my thing, you know.”

A look of disappointment flashed across his face. “Oh, right. Okay. Well, if you ever need someone to talk to-”

“Hey Nora, would that make you a rhi _nora_ ceros?” She cut him off before he could finish.

Ren smacked his forehead while Nora fell off the ledge in laughter.

Once again, terrible puns save the day.

They walked a bit further, past some merchants selling flowers of every color imaginable. Eventually they reached one of Mistral’s famed elevators and waited in line to board. The elevators were a genius invention, designed to connect the different tiers of the city. However, once you got lower down, the elevators stopped and the staircases began. The absence of the infrastructure found everywhere in the upper tier was just another example of the inequalities between classes. Upward mobility was made next to impossible in part due to the long and strenuous commute up the mountains of Mistral. Those at the bottom were condemned to stay there.  

It was this isolation, though, that made it easy for them to operate away from the watchful eyes of those in power.

Although the lower tier wasn't exactly the safest place, as long as they avoided particular areas and stayed together they would be fine. Besides, if anything were to happen, each of them was a skilled fighter. They’d all dealt with way worse than robbers and thieves.

After the elevators came the stairs. They were endless. Every time they thought they were finally done, they’d round the corner to find yet another set. Long after everything had blurred together and in their automatic daze they’d each almost missed a step and gone tumbling down, they reached the bottom.

“LAND! SWEET LAND!” Nora exclaimed, her legs shaking.

“Nora, we were already on land,” said Ren.

Jaune collapsed onto the ground next to her. “Honestly, I think going DOWN stairs might be worse than going up them.”

Yang smirked. She’d fared the best out of the four of them, her breathing only slightly impaired. She was suddenly thankful for all of that extra training that Tai had forced her to do. “You say that now.”

Jaune groaned and slammed his head back into the ground. “That’s a problem for future Jaune.”

“Why don’t we buy some freshly squeezed juice to cool off?” Ren gestured towards their destination for the day: the large outdoor farmers’ market that now lay before them. 

Nora chippered up at the suggestion. “Oooh good idea! I hope they have pineapple.”

Everyone picked themselves up off the ground and they headed off towards the brightly colored tents. Yang carefully took in her surroundings, admiring just how vast the market was. It went on seemingly for miles, filled with hundreds of people weaving their way between stalls that occupied every possible space. There were people selling freshly baked bread, people selling bananas and oranges and all sorts of fruits none of them had ever seen before. Nora picked up a small red one that looked like it was covered in hair, while Yang admired one that was pink with green spikes protruding from it. Rambutan and pitaya, the vendor informed them.

For every food they knew from home, there were ten others that they’d only recently discovered existed. Aside from day trips into Vale and the year she’d spent at Beacon, Yang had never really left the small island of Patch where she’d grown up. Aware of the dangers of the outside world, Tai had been reluctant to let her and Ruby ever stray too far from home. She supposed it was a smart move on her father’s part; given her own reckless nature and Ruby’s super speed they would most certainly have gotten into trouble had Tai ever taken them out of the kingdom.

It meant, though, that she had a very limited view of the outside world. She’d enjoyed riding Bumblebee through Anima as it had given her ample time to observe the differences between the environments here and the ones back in Vale. For one, it was much hotter and more humid here. She almost missed her old outfit, which exposed far more skin than her current one. The wildlife was also quite different - she’d still seen deer and squirrels, just like at home, but she also had encountered monkeys and snakes, and once she even swore she saw the stripes of a tiger peeking through the trees.

No dragons though, Yang admitted sadly.

While she became lost in her thoughts, the four of them continued to make their way through the stalls until they finally found what they were searching for.

“Freshly squeezed lemonade for the beautiful lady and her friends? The best in the city!” 

Yang rolled her eyes at the flirtatious vendor. He was an older man, his skin tanned and his back hunched over no doubt from his days spent laboring in the citrus fields. His eyes were kind, though, so Yang decided to forgive him for the comment and tossed some lien onto the counter. “Four lemonades, please.”

He took the money and nodded before turning away to make their drinks.

“Sooo where should we start today?” Nora ventured while they waited.

Ren looked around at the endless maze of people that stood before them. “Well, there are certainly plenty of different vendors. It might be interesting to get their perspective.”

“Ooh good idea!”

“You guys, we can’t just interview people while they’re working!” Jaune interjected.

Yang surveyed the area. While there were certainly a lot of people moving about, they would undoubtedly be hard to flag down. She really wasn’t in the mood to get yelled at by any angry parents in a rush to finish their grocery shopping or readying themselves to fight for the freshest looking fish. Fortunately, there were plenty of others who were simply hanging around and enjoying the vibrant people-watching scenery. Many were leaning against the fence along the river, chatting with friends or taking a smoke break. 

“Why don’t we try over there?” she said, her gaze pointing towards the river. It would be the perfect place to enjoy their drinks while casually starting up conversation with the locals.

They all nodded in agreement, grabbed their lemonades, and set off for their new destination.

“Aww, look! The lemon guy even gave us these cute little umbrellas!” Nora peered over at Ren’s drink. “No fair, how come _you_ got the pink one?”

Ever the diplomat, Ren offered, “We can trade if you’d like.”

Nora hugged her drink towards her, suddenly possessive of her own bright green ornament. “Mine.”

Yang chuckled, the purple umbrella in her lemonade twisting back and forth between her fingers. She couldn’t deny her own appreciation for the diminutive decorative pieces, even if they were a bit unnecessary. They reminded her of a time when they had the luxury to be silly and indulgent. A time when life was merely an enjoyable adventure, full of endless jokes and fun times.

And yet here she was, still making jokes in a completely foreign kingdom on a new adventure, so maybe not everything had changed after all.

They walked over to a vacant spot along the fence and settled into place. Yang peered over the edge, taking in the scene. Although the river originated from high up in the mountains and was fed by numerous waterfalls along the way, the starting place of traffic was here. Beyond this point it likely became too steep and too shallow for boats to traverse safely. On the other end, the river continued for miles across Anima where it would eventually join with the ocean. Most used it as a means of transportation across the vast kingdom, be it themselves or their produce, though occasionally a larger ship brought in foreign visitors and imported goods.

On this particular day, the river was crowded with long, flat-bottomed boats being loaded and unloaded of everything that was to be sold in the market before them.

She gazed out over the river, marveling in how unique this place was. There was a kind of beauty to the chaos that she’d never really experienced before. As she took everything in, her attention was slowly brought to the other side where there seemed to be some sort of argument taking place. She leaned forward, hoping to hear what was being said, but they were too far away and the surrounding noise level was too loud for her to make anything out.

She did notice, though, something she had missed before: a very large platform on a track that ascended into the mist-enshrouded upper tiers. A man in an official looking uniform was standing to the side of it arguing with a much taller heavily-tattooed man who was trying to get past him. Suddenly, the guard reached for his side where he no doubt concealed a weapon. The gun in her arm extended from its hidden chamber and clicked into place.

“Yang?” Jaune said, following her gaze.

Thankfully, the guard’s gesture was enough to convince the tattooed man to back down. He shook his head and walked away, his hands balled into angry fists.

“I wonder what that was about,” Yang said. “And what on earth is that thing for?” She gestured towards the platform where the guard had resumed his post.

“It looks kind of like the elevators we took. Only bigger,” Ren observed.

Jaune looked up, following the tracks. “It must go all the way to the upper tiers…”

Nora draped herself over the edge of the fence, suddenly defeated. “You’re telling me we could’ve just taken that instead of walking down all those stairs.”

That seemed like too good of an idea to be true, Yang thought. “It seems blocked off though…”

“Maybe it’s broken?”

“Maybe…” Yang said, but she wasn’t entirely convinced that was it. It didn’t seem like it was being guarded out of a concern for safety. She mentally added the mysterious platform to the list of things she needed to find out about today.

Changing the subject, Jaune said, “We should probably get started on these interviews. It’s almost mid-day.”

They nodded in agreement, peering around for their first target. “How about those two over there?” Nora whispered, pointing towards a black-haired woman talking to a redheaded man a short distance away. “They look friendly enough.”

After gaining her team’s approval, Nora skipped over to the pair. “Helloooo!” she greeted loudly. They paused their conversation, quizzically eyeing the bubbling girl before them.

“My friends and I,” Nora gestured towards them, “are doing a project for school. I was wondering if you both had time to answer a few questions for our survey?”

The woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “It’s summer. School is out until September.”

“Uhhhh…” Nora scratched her head. “We’re exchange students?”

“I can see that.”

Nora paused, unsure of how to proceed in the face of the woman’s sudden surliness. “Um…”

“Aw, come on Olivia, they’re just kids. A couple of questions can’t hurt,” the redheaded man came to her rescue.  

Olivia rolled her eyes. “Fine, but it had better not take long.”

A smile split across Nora’s face, her previous cheerful disposition returning. “I’ll be quick, ma’am!” Olivia tapped her foot, impatiently waiting for the first question.

Nora was suddenly readying a pencil and a notebook that she’d magically pulled out from god knows where. “Do you guys live in the lower ring?”

Olivia pursed her lips at the potentially intrusive question, but thankfully answered anyway. “Yes… Emile here lives further out on the edge of the city, and I’m pretty close to here.” 

“What kind of work do you do?”

This time Emile answered. “I’m a farmer; I work on the rice terraces on the outskirts of Mistral. Olivia is a shoemaker in the city.”

“Do you ever use the elevators?”

Olivia scoffed. ”You kids must really be new here. Everyone knows those are reserved for the rich. The rest of us have to make do with the stairs and the boats.”

“What are your opinions on those who live in the upper tiers?" 

It seemed like a harmless enough question, but Nora must have said something wrong because the second the words came out of her mouth Olivia’s hesitation turned to downright animosity. Her voice full of anger now, she shouted, “Excuse me? Is this some sort of government ploy to track down opposition?”

“Wha- no!” Nora stepped back, her hands raised in an attempt to diffuse the suddenly tense situation. 

Olivia wasn’t hearing any of it, though. “Ugh, I’ve had enough of you people! I should’ve known from the beginning - look at them, Emile, they’re clearly from the upper tier. This was a total waste of time. Let’s go.” She grabbed her friend and dragged him away, but not before she gave their small group one last glare.

“That went well,” Ren said.

Unfortunately, all of their subsequent attempts went much the same. Many people outright refused them, and those whose interest was initially piqued quickly turned hostile once they learned of the subject matter.

“I don’t understaaaand,” Nora whined. “This worked in the upper tier.”

Yang had stayed silent throughout the whole process, enjoying the entertainment of her friends’ failed attempts, but she finally decided to take pity on them. “That’s because you guys are going about this whole thing the wrong way. People down here have learned to be guarded, unlike the elite who take every opportunity to flaunt everything about themselves.”

The other three groaned. “Then what do we do?” Jaune asked.

A sly grin suddenly flittered onto Yang’s face. Making its way through the crowd was the perfect opportunity to give them a demonstration.

“Watch this.”

She swiftly detached her prosthetic arm from its socket and tossed it towards a very startled Jaune before stalking off towards her target. As she got closer, she thrust her hips sideways into a woman wearing a delicately embroidered green dress. “Ahh!” Just as she’d intended, the woman fell and knocked over another man who was passing by. 

“Hey, lady! Watch it!”

“But I-” The woman looked around in bewilderment for the source of her imbalance, but Yang had already disappeared back into the crowd. She turned back to the disgruntled man sprawled on the ground, repeatedly muttering her apologies. He waved her off, clearly not in the mood to deal with her. She timidly walked away, still looking around trying to make sense of what had transpired.

“Man, rich people, right?” Yang had suddenly materialized and was holding out her hand to the tattooed man.

He eyed her suspiciously, but turned his gaze to the stump that was her right arm. As she’d hoped, the sight of it caused him to accept her outstretched hand and pull himself up off the ground. “Tell me about it. They think they can just waltz around down here like they own the place.”

She shook her head, feigning indignation. “As if they knew anything about a hard day’s work. They think that everything here just magically appears in front of them.” She swept her hand out in front of her towards the diverse array of products spanning the market.

“Right?” He stuck out his hand. “The name’s Travis.”

She took it. “Yang.”

The man named Travis inspected her closely. ”Say, you don’t look like you’re from around here,” he finally said.

Yang chuckled. “You got me. I’ve been visiting my uncle for the past few months. Helping out around the farm, you know, where I can.” She shrugged the armless side of her body. “He grows grapes.”

“Well, you seem like you’ve got a good head about you, Yang. Bit of advice, though: I’d stay clear of people from the upper ring.” He looked towards the guards on the giant platform from earlier. “They act all high and mighty, but they’re really just mindless governmental pawns.”

“What's that thing?” she finally had the chance to ask. “I’ve been wondering.”

Fortunately, her excuse of being new in town seemed to work to her advantage, because Travis simply replied, “You don’t know? I guess you could say it’s a symbol of how us poor people are treated.”

Continuing, he said, “It’s an elevator that goes up throughout the whole kingdom, but only the super elite and the government are allowed to use it. They come down here, buy up half the market, and then sell it up there for three times the price.” He spit. “And it’s only a matter of time before they start importing everything from the factories in Vale.”

“That’s despicable,” Yang kicked the ground. This time, she didn't have to fake her reaction. Evidently _t_ _hat_ wasn't the kind of thing that Ozpin and Lionheart liked to flaunt about. 

“Glad you agree.”

He paused, as if he wanted to say more but couldn’t decide whether or not he should. Another look at her missing arm seemed to convince him, though, because he finally said, “Listen, if you want to learn more…”

He looked around briefly before leaning in close to her ear. “There’s a big group of us that meets every Thursday. The Resistance, I guess you could call us. We’re trying to recruit likeminded individuals, such as yourself.”

Reaching into his pocket, Travis pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to her. “Stop by if you’re interested.”

Bingo. She internally smirked. People were so easy to predict.

Yang tucked the paper carefully into her bra and nodded. “Thanks.”

“Hope to see you soon, Yang.” He winked at her, before dissolving back into the crowd.

She sauntered back towards the river, where her friends were all staring at her openmouthed in disbelief. _Not so useless after all, am I_ , she thought, her face beaming with pride.

She walked up to Jaune, who was standing where she’d left him holding up her arm, and high-fived herself.

“Now _that’s_ how you do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did say this would be a slow burn :p 
> 
> Something that I've been pretty disappointed with this volume is that we haven't really seen Mistral at all! It's such a beautifully designed city, and the WoR description is pretty fascinating, so I really wanted to take the time to explore it in this fic. I'm really sorry if that's not what you're here for, but this is setting up something that will happen later! 
> 
> I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, Nora is hilarious to write and with Yang I just got to be pretty ridiculous. Definitely laughed way too hard at my own jokes. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	4. Cascading

“Blaaaaaake? Remnant to Blake.”

A hand was suddenly gracelessly waving in front of her, pulling her from the trance she’d slipped into some time ago. Across the table, Ruby was staring at her.

“What?” 

A sigh. 

“There’s no point in you being here if you’re not going to pay attention,” Weiss scolded her. 

“Sorry.” 

The three of them had been sitting together in the conference room of the airship belonging to Winter Schnee for the last few hours; apparently there had been a lot to fill Blake in from the few months she’d been gone. It wouldn’t have been unexpected for her to be slightly overwhelmed - after all, apparently there was some evil force out there named Salem who controlled the Grimm, and Ozpin was actually an immortal wizard currently trapped in the body of a 14 year old boy. Okay. Why not. 

Except all three of them knew very well that none of that had anything to do with what was on her mind right now.

She’d been genuinely shocked by everything they’d told her (seriously,  _ Weiss  _ summoning a Grimm at her father’s party?), but somehow her mind always wandered back to the bodacious blonde that her teammates had been pointedly skirting around.  

Another sigh.

“Just talk to her.” 

Blake snapped her head towards where Weiss was sitting tapping her finger. How was this girl always so skilled at deciphering exactly what she was thinking? 

She stretched her hands out and let herself fall forward onto the table with a groan. “It’s not that simple.” 

Weiss glanced at Ruby and rolled her eyes. “It never is, with you two.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

Ruby laughed. “Hey, isn’t that your line,” she said, nudging her partner on the shoulder. The white-haired girl rolled her eyes again, but this time with a smile hidden behind them.  

It was strange, seeing the two of them interact. In some ways they were the same as always- still pushing each other’s buttons, still berating each other. But it was also clear to see that their relationship had significantly matured. Although they still liked to poke fun (they were, after all, both uniquely ridiculous), there was no longer any lingering malice or jealousy. After the fall of Beacon and all those months spent apart, all that remained was a deep mutual respect and relief that they were finally together again. 

She wished that she could say the same about her relationship with her own partner. 

“Anyway,  _ she _ stopped  _ you  _ today. She didn’t have to do that.”

“She just didn’t want things to be awkward…”

“Well, too bad. They are. And it’s your fault.” Weiss was looking at her with those piercing blue eyes that shot shards of ice straight through her. Blake looked away, unable to stand the truth of her words.

Weiss ignored her discomfort and continued. “Look, I understand why you left. Ruby does too. But  _ she  _ doesn’t. To her, it looks like someone else just abandoned her. And not just someone, but her  _ best friend  _ who she lost an  _ arm _ trying to protect.”        

She wanted to argue that she hadn’t “just abandoned” Yang, that leaving was the last thing she’d wanted to do, that it had ripped her heart into pieces, but she knew that her frosty teammate was right. It didn’t matter what her intentions were; what mattered was what she had done, and how it had affected Yang. She sighed, mentally berating herself for being so stupid.  

“You need to apologize to her and explain why you won’t just up and leave again. Because considering your track record, she has no reason to believe that you won’t.”

Blake flinched; Weiss really knew how to strike where it hurt. But she was trying,  _ damn it _ , that was why she’d finally confronted the White Fang in Menagerie. “I would, if she would just listen–”

“Then  _ make  _ her.” The resolve in the girl’s voice was final, but Blake was surprised to find that her expression had briefly softened. She realized that Weiss wasn’t being harsh out of enmity: she was just telling the truths that she needed to hear. It was her way of showing that she cared. 

And a few months ago Blake might have protested. She might have said that she should just respect Yang’s wishes and leave her alone. In fact, she  _ still  _ wanted to say that. 

But Sun had taught her a very important lesson: that sometimes you have to be there for someone even if they don’t want you to.

Then Ruby, who had been silent for most of the conversation, said, “She needs you, Blake. She still does. Even if she doesn’t want to admit it.” 

Blake was thankful for the door that suddenly slammed open behind her, because she genuinely didn’t know how she would have responded otherwise.

A voice somehow more brash than Weiss’ reverberated through the room. “It’s time to get to business. You all have had quite enough time to catch up.” 

“Yes, Winter. Of course.” Weiss promptly tried to sit up straighter, but as she already had impeccable posture she succeeded only in tumbling backwards out of her chair. 

Ruby ducked under the the table both to hide her laughter and to escape the glare that her partner shot her way. Blake suppressed her own smile. Winter Schnee was perhaps the only person in all of Remnant who could intimidate their perfectly poised teammate into losing her composure. 

The eldest Schnee chose to ignore their nonsense and pointedly took the unoccupied seat at the head of the table. She turned to Blake. “Tell me everything you know about the White Fang.”

If someone had told Blake that one day she would be sitting down with two Schnees and divulging to them every single secret of the organization she had devoted her life to, she would never have believed them. 

Moments like these were what made her realize just how wildly her life had deviated from her own expectations. 

She started out by telling them about how the White Fang is divided into factions, each led by a different person, and how they all are commanded by the High Leader. How her father was once High Leader under a platform of non-violence, until he willingly stepped down to allow Sienna Khan to take his place. How Sienna used violence when violence was necessary, and how she was overthrown and killed by Adam Taurus.

The longer she talked, though, the more Blake found herself getting lost in her own words. It was as though the gates of a flood, held back for so many years, had finally been opened and everything that had happened in her life had come rushing out. Her words breathed life to her past: a past that she had desperately tried to separate from herself and her teammates. But now, her teammates were to whom she spoke. 

She told them about Adam, and how he was once her partner. How he had slowly become one with the mask that he wore, and how she left when she realized that her parents had been right. How he tried to have them killed, and how he has made it his mission to slowly torment her until one day he finally kills her. How he promised her equality for the Faunus, and how he will never achieve it.  

The world melted away around her, and she forgot that she was on a ship in Mistral, she forgot that Winter Schnee, the daughter of her previous enemy, was sitting three feet away from her. 

She was an 8 year old girl, and she was perched on the shoulders of her father, holding up a sign high into the sky that read “Equality for Faunus!” in messy red crayon writing. The wind that ripped through her short black hair only added to her exhilaration, and her eyes shined gold with wonder and hope at the future that she was helping to create. Her arms ached, but she raised her sign even higher with the fierce determination born within her.

And as she thought about that young, starry-eyed girl of her past, she was surprised to realize that she wasn’t just picturing a memory. That girl was sitting right in front of her, staring back with eyes colored silver, rather than gold, but filled with the exact same purity and determination to make a difference that Blake herself had once had. 

She used to think that Ruby was simply naive. That one day she would wake up and realize that the world wasn’t full of sunshine and rainbows, that no matter how hard you tried injustice could never be vanquished. 

Because that’s what happened to all of them, in time; that youthful idealism never failed to harden into cynicism.

But Ruby wasn’t like them. Her idealism didn’t come from her youth. It came from something authentic inside her, something that made her simple soul utterly incorruptible. She didn’t just believe in good. She  _ was  _ good.

And with the simple phrase “That’s why we’re here: to make the world better,” she had helped Blake remember, at a time when she had been ready to give up, what it was like to be 8 years old again.

And so Blake finished her story, thinking about her friends, and finally noticing the dryness in her mouth and the shortness of her breath. Speaking everything out loud, sharing everything that she’d been through, made her realize for the first time just how crazy her life was. It made everything so much more real. There had always been another fight to distract her from fully processing all of the tragedies she’d experienced. Aside from those few blissful months of ignorance at Beacon, she’d spent her whole life in survival mode. 

Ruby and Weiss were staring at her, as if seeing her for the first time. Everything they’d known about their teammate’s former life had been pieced together from the snippets that Blake had dropped on the rare occasions she’d let her guard down. They finally had the fully story, laid bare before them. 

The cat ears atop Blake’s head flattened slightly, and she cowed under their gaze, disconcerted by the heaviness of the eyes that were fixed on her. 

She was quite familiar with being stared at, after all. 

But as the seconds ticked by, Blake slowly realized that their stares weren’t filled with the usual revulsion and contempt that she had grown accustomed to.

Astonishment. Awe. Respect.

That was what lay behind the glimmering silver and blue stares. 

She wiped away the dampness that had somehow snuck into her own amber eyes, and felt herself enveloped in the arms of first Ruby, and then Weiss.

“Thank you,” Ruby said. “For telling us.” 

Blake shook her head. “No, thank you. For letting me.”

After a few seconds Winter coughed, alerting them that despite their “touching” moment they still weren’t finished. They returned to their seats and spent the rest of the morning answering her remaining questions. Eventually, she departed for her quarters to consolidate the new intel.

The three of them made their way back to the house, suddenly free for the afternoon. Ruby  skipped through the air, prattling the whole way about all of the delicious foods that awaited her grumbling stomach. Weiss pointed out that skipping was only going to burn through her reserves and make her more hungry. Ruby ignored her.

All Blake could do was smile. 

 

* * *   
  


“Do I smell PANCAKES?!”

“NOOOOOOO!”

Ruby sprinted across the room to hide from the reaches of Nora, her arms laden with a vast tub of pancake batter. 

They thought that they’d been safe to finally have the kitchen to themselves, that maybe just  _ once  _ they would be able to have a meal of fluffy deliciousness without a full-on war breaking out.

But of course, Nora’s radar for the tasty breakfast staple extended far beyond the expansive boundaries of Mistral.   (“The market closed at 1 so we decided to come home early,” Ren clarified).

“Why are all of you so out of breath?” Weiss asked, peering at the intruders. 

For what was probably the hundredth time that day, Jaune collapsed onto the floor. “Stairs. Hundreds. Thousands. Millions. Death.” 

“Oh stop being so dramatic. You only vomited, what? Twice?” Yang’s voice trailed into the room, followed by the brawler herself.

Blake turned in alarm, but before she could do anything else she was staring at the blonde girl, wondering how on earth it was possible for someone who had just climbed who knows how many flights of stairs to look so, well,  _ radiant _ .  

Her body was glistening with sweat, but instead of being unpleasant it just made her look like as though she was covered in a light dusting of glitter. Her long, golden hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and a few loose strands cascaded enticingly around her face. She’d discarded her heavy jacket in the sweltering heat and was now revealing the very narrow, bright orange crop top that normally hid beneath. And below that, Blake saw the intentionally broadcasted set of toned abs that had only become more defined since the last time she had seen them.   

She could feel her face growing redder by the second.

_ Cat got your tongue.  _

Blake knew, she just  _ knew _ , that even with all the tension between them there wasn’t a single chance that Yang wasn’t currently having a fervent internal battle over whether or not she should make the joke. 

Thankfully, Ruby saved both of them by shouting, “VOMIT BOY RETURNS!”

A groan carried up from the spot of the floor occupied by a lifeless Jaune. “As if I haven’t already heard that one today.” 

They all laughed. Taking advantage of their momentary distraction, Nora dove towards Ruby in a desperate attempt to snatch the pancake batter away from her.

Ruby shrieked and darted across the room, hoping to hide behind Blake. The rest of them watched in slow motion, horrified, as their bumbling leader tripped over Jaune and the bowl of batter went tumbling through the air, straight towards Blake. 

The bowl clattered to the ground.

The room went dead silent, save for the slow drip of the wet, goopy mixture sliding off of Blake’s entire body onto the floor. Blake steadily reached a hand up and wiped a line down her face clean.

She opened her batter-laden eyes, and said, in a steely calm voice, “Are you  _ trying  _ to start another food fight because, if so, I  _ will  _ win.” 

A roar of laughter that could only belong to Yang Xiao Long thundered throughout the room. 

Blake looked at her in surprise, before allowing herself a small smile. 

No one else had any idea how to react, so they simply let Yang’s laughter infect them until everyone was rolling around on the ground covered head to toe in the slimy substance, gasping for breath.

Blake pretended not to see the smug grin that Weiss was directing at her. 

After everyone had regained their composure, they set off to cleaning up the mess and assembling a mountain of sandwiches to eat in place of the lost pancakes. Fortunately for the kitchen’s sake, lunch did not end in a food war and instead they spent the meal recounting their mornings.

“And then Yang just FWOOOSH swept in and tricked him so bad. It was incredible.”

Yang twirled her hair around her finger. “It was nothing,” she said, but her mouth couldn’t help but curl up into a grin. She was clearly proud of her performance.  

Weiss started to say something– probably voicing her disapproval of the unmannerly deceit– but was cut off by her younger partner excitedly asking, “So how should we spend the rest of our day? We should do something fun, since we’re all free!”  

“Sorry, I have a date with my pillow for the next, like, 3 years,” Jaune said. Ren and Nora voiced their agreement. Although they weren’t quite as vocal about it as Jaune, they both were equally exhausted. 

Yang, on the other hand, never missed an opportunity for an adventure. “Why don’t we go for a hike to the waterfalls? They’re apparently quite the sight to see,” she suggested. 

The silver eyes of the cloaked girl widened. “Can… can we go SWIMMING?”

Her sister smiled, knowing that she’d immediately won the younger girl over. “I  _ have  _ heard a rumor that we can do that, yes.” 

Before Yang had even finished speaking, Ruby had leapt to her feet, pulling a very disgruntled Weiss with her. 

“Wha- no! I never consented to this!” she protested. “The water will be  _ cold _ , and you know how my hair is when it gets wet. And we don’t even have swimsuits!”

“We’ll go in our underwear.”

“In  _ public _ ? That is too indecent!”

“Too bad, I’m the leader which means you have to do what I say!” 

“That’s not what that- ahhh!” Weiss’ cries echoed down the hall as Ruby dragged her towards their rooms to get ready.

Everyone remaining at the table looked at Blake, since she had yet to voice her opinion. Blake, though, had long since accepted that once Ruby set her mind on something there was no convincing her otherwise, and it was therefore easier to just go along with it than to try and argue. 

So she merely shrugged and said, “Better pick out some cute underwear.”

 

* * *   
  


When Yang had said “hike,” Blake had thought she meant, like, a quick climb up the nearest hill to one of the waterfalls that flowed through the city center. As it turned out, this hike was a two hour trek up into the lush, misty mountains that embedded Mistral. 

It was so comically typical that Blake couldn’t even be mad. 

They’d traipsed through muddy trails, climbing on all fours over rocks and trees and up steep, perpetual slopes. They were covered in cuts and bruises and completely drenched in mud, but despite frequent complaints not a single one of them didn’t secretly savor every second of it. 

They were huntsmen, after all. 

Even Weiss had embraced the wilderness, after Yang challenged her to a bet that she couldn’t go ten minutes without griping about the “barbaric nature of their excursion.” The stubborn determination hardened into her face as she casually swatted away another fly was enough to convince them all that Yang would soon have an extra night of dish duty. 

The journey to the waterfall offered Blake ample time to debate whether or not she should try and talk to Yang, but she was loathe to shatter the cheerful ambiance. It seemed like a lifetime since they’d been able to enjoy an afternoon together as a team.

The tranquility of team RWBY was a fragile one, though, and Blake knew that the slightest misstep could cause it to unravel. The tension between black and yellow still simmered, even if momentarily forgotten by the temptations of nostalgia for simpler times. 

So Blake situated herself at the back of their group, while Yang charged on ahead at the front, and they both let themselves be lured into the pretense that things were just as they’d always been.  

Fortunately it wasn’t very hard, because s omewhere along the way Ruby had forced them all into playing a silly memory game that she’d apparently enjoyed as a child. 

“I’m going on a trip and in my suitcase I’m packing Crescent Rose, a hairbrush, a copy of Ninjas of Love, a boombox, aaaand… Zwei!”

“Ruby, you can’t put a dog in a suitcase.” 

The girl in question groaned. “How many times do I have to tell you, Weiss, it doesn’t have to be realistic! Besides, if my dad can mail Zwei in a package then I can put him in my suitcase.”

“This game is dumb.” Weiss huffed, but continued playing nonetheless. “I’m going on a trip and in my suitcase I’m packing Crescent Rose, a hairbrush, a copy of Ninjas of Love, a boombox, Zwei, and my toothbrush.”

“Weiss, could you be any more boring?” Yang called from ahead of them, her head poking out from behind a tree. 

“Well excuse me for practicing proper dental hygiene, Yang Xiao Long! When all of your teeth fall out maybe then you’ll wish you’d brought a toothbrush instead of that insufferable noise maker!”

Weiss’ chidings fell across deaf ears, though, because the blonde girl had made it to the top of their current incline and gasped. “Hurry up, you guys have to see this!” she shouted down.

The rest of them scampered up the slope and froze when they finally saw what had impressed Yang.

“Whoa.”

They were standing on the edge of a sharp drop where the thick band of trees had finally opened up, offering them a clear view of the picturesque landscape sprawling beneath them. 

Blake hadn’t quite realized how high up they’d climbed, but from their vantage point they could see the entire kingdom and far beyond. They could see the large mansions nestled in the forested cliffs, the majestic government building that spanned across two mountain peaks, even the pointed towers of what could only be Haven Academy. Flying airships cut across the sky, mingling with a rainbow of birds whose feathers shone iridescent in the sunlight. Hundreds of tiny waterfalls cascaded amongst the man-made monuments, forming a snaking network of rivers that descended deep into the valley. Vast fields spread out in every direction, with rows upon rows of crops and perfectly aligned trees. They could even see the ocean, sparkling as though it had swallowed up all the stars of the night sky. 

Mist swirled around them and mingled with the rays of the afternoon sun to give the whole image an ethereal glow, and the four of them gaped in awe, their eyes hungrily trying to capture the sublime view that lay before them. 

Turns out the world  _ was  _ full of sunshine and rainbows.

Yang must’ve been thinking the same thing, because she said, “is the world really this beautiful?”

“This is certainly unlike anything I’ve ever seen before,” said Weiss. “Although, someday, you guys should visit Atlas. You’d love the way the auroras reflect off of the frozen lakes. Not to mention the polar bears and penguins,” she added with a glance at Ruby. 

Ruby’s eyes lit up. She rummaged through her backpack and pulled out her scroll. “We have to take a team picture here!” 

They started to protest that they were all gross and sweaty, but Ruby wasn’t hearing any of it. She made them stand in team order and stretched out her arm to snap the photo. Blake’s heart rate increased as she realized that this was the closest her and Yang had been since she’d left, and she practically jumped out of her skin when Ruby squeezed them all closer, forcing their arms to brush against each other. 

Ruby’s reach was too short to really capture the background, but she seemed satisfied enough with the photo and finally released them. “We can take another one when we visit Atlas!” she exclaimed.

_ When _ , Blake thought.

The future for Blake had never held any certainty. It never could have.

But the way Ruby said it, as if she just  _ knew _ that the four of them would be together, that somehow they would make it through everything that fate tossed their way…  

Blake realized she wanted that. She wanted that really, really badly.

But first…

Yang picked up her own backpack that she’d gracelessly discarded on the ground. “Come on, we’re almost there!” She raced off down the path, heading back into the cloud forest.

The rest of them reluctantly peeled their eyes from the lookout and followed her trail. They had been walking for a little while when Blake heard the trees rustle high above her and saw three monkeys with golden red fur hop across the branches. The smallest paused to peer down at her with dark, curious orbs, clicking its teeth before eventually taking off to find its friends. She made a mental reminder to tell Sun that she’d finally found somewhere he fit in. 

In her preoccupation with the monkeys, Blake hadn’t realized that they’d suddenly stopped. 

“We’re here!”

They were standing on the edge of another cliff again, but this time it opened up to a small canyon about 80 feet down, filled with crisp, rippling water that reflected the surrounding green foliage. A perfect swimming hole.

A couple stone throws away to their right was the source of the natural pool, thousands of gallons of water thundering down in a wall of pure white mist. The deafening sound of the waterfall alone was enough to impress upon Blake its shear power, and even though they weren’t very close she could still feel a few stray drops of water fleck her face. 

Ruby practically ripped off her clothes. 

Ever the pragmatic, Weiss pointed out a flaw in their plan. “How on earth are we going to get down there?” 

“There’s a ladder?” Yang pulled back a few branches to reveal a damp set of wooden planks strung together with fraying rope, worn down from the many visitors who had stumbled across the hidden treasure.

Weiss scrunched her nose in distaste. “Any other suggestions?”

“We could jump.”

Everyone looked at Blake. Their mouths hung open in shock, all for very different reasons. 

“Absolutely not,” Weiss said. 

“Absolutely YES,” chimed in Ruby.

Yang merely peered quizzically at Blake, reminding her a bit of the golden monkey she’d spotted earlier in the trees. Before Blake could decipher what the weird glance meant, though, Yang pumped her fists in the air and shouted, “HELL YES.” 

“There’s no way we’ll survive.” 

“Weiss, we literally got catapulted hundreds of feet into the air and were told simply to  _ land _ .” 

“That was… different!”

“Admit it, you’re scared.” 

Weiss tore her shirt off and tossed it to the side. “I’ll show you scared, Yang Xiao Long!”

Satisfied with her victory, Yang began undressing too. Despite Ruby’s declaration that they go in their underwear, they’d all managed to scrounge together various outfit pieces that sufficed for swimwear. Yang was wearing an orange sports bra, and underneath her hiking pants…

“What on  _ earth _ are those?” 

The blonde girl looked down innocently at her bottoms, but she couldn’t hide the anything-but-innocent smile that played onto her lips.

At first Blake had thought that they were simply her black booty shorts, salvaged from her partner’s old uniform. After all, she  _ had _ loved those dearly.

But then she turned, and plastered in yellow block letters across her butt were the words: “SUN’S OUT, BUNS OUT.”

“Where did you even  _ find _ those?”

“Don’t worry about it. Have I mentioned that I love Mistral?” Yang winked.

Weiss rubbed her temples. “For the love of god, please don’t ever wear those out in public.”

“Can’t make that promise, Ice Queen.” 

“This precipice is looking more and more enticing.” 

Their youngest teammate bobbed up and down in place. Ruby had been patiently waiting for the rest of them, but she could no longer take it. She grabbed Weiss by the hand and dragged her forward, whining, “then let’s goooooo!” 

“I’m not going first!” 

“We’ll go together. On the count of three.”

Weiss, unfortunately, was too busy eyeing the bubbling water far below her to notice the mischievous glint in Ruby’s eyes.

“Okay, one.”

“Is this really necess–”

“Two. Three!”

They jumped.

Well, Weiss jumped. 

As the silver-haired girl hurtled through the air, a small snicker came from her partner who, at the last second, had let go of her hand and was still standing at the top of the cliff.  

“RUBY ROOOOOOOOSE!” 

The cry of betrayal drowned out the sound of the waterfall. 

“Oops.”

The three of them burst out laughing, until finally they heard the loud SPLASH of their fourth teammate finally hitting the water. 

“Ruby Rose, I am going to MURDER you the second you get down here!” they heard faintly. “I’m going to take that oversized gardening tool of yours, and shove it up–” 

“Damn, Ruby, you sure know how to win ‘em,” Yang grinned at her. 

Her younger sister laughed, but Blake couldn’t help but notice a slight apprehension on her face. She may not have thought this through, exactly. 

“Maybe I should stay up here,” Ruby laughed nervously. A thin circle of ice had formed around her partner, who had not yet run out of curses to shout up at her. “You know, to keep guard.” 

Yang locked eyes with Blake, and for a moment time evaporated. They were back at Beacon, where Yang was about to pull off one of her “famed” pranks, and Blake knew exactly what she was thinking. 

She always did. 

Most partners could communicate silently after spending so much time together, but usually that took years of fighting side-by-side. For Yang and Blake, being able to exchange thoughts without using a single world was something that had come to them instantly. 

Maybe it was because they were both familiar with the language of hidden emotions, that they knew exactly what those thoughts looked like when conveyed through a mask. 

Whatever the reason, Blake began to slowly inch her way towards Ruby, at the same time that Yang pointed towards the sky and yelled, “Ruby, that bird looks like Uncle Qrow!”

The brunette girl jerked her head up in excitement, hoping to see her uncle circling above them in bird form.

Blake felt a little bad as she casually shoved her leader off the side of the cliff.

Ruby had been really excited to see her uncle.

“YAAANG! BLAAAAKE! HOW COULD YOU!”

“It was for her own good,” Yang said with a wicked grin.

Blake was sure that was true for the half of Yang that was the protective older sister. She wasn’t so sure about the other half, though– the half that gained immense joy out of taunting and teasing the people she loved. 

Fortunately, watching Ruby be double-crossed by her own sister had melted some of Weiss’ “ice-land” and she was now pointing at the girl and laughing.

“Aw yeah, score: 1 for team Bumblebee!” Yang held up her hand and high-fived Blake. 

As Blake pulled back her arm, though, her gaze lingered a bit too long on the prosthetic hand she’d just touched. Suddenly, reality rushed over them like a roaring waterfall and Blake was back to drowning in an overwhelming sense of guilt.

Their moment of rapport was gone. They both looked away. 

“Um…” Yang kicked her feet on the ground. 

It was the second time that day that they’d been alone together, and it wasn’t any less uncomfortable than the first time. Without their teammates to distract them, the Grimm-sized elephant in the room returned at full force.

What could she even say right now?

_ Nice one. By the way, I’m sorry for abandoning you when you needed me most. I missed this, and it’s totally my fault for ruining everything. _

The edge of the cliff really was starting to look very appetizing. 

“I guess we should probably jump,” Yang said quietly.

“Yeah.” Blake accidentally glanced at Yang’s arm again. “Um…” 

“It’s waterproof,” Yang finally bitterly said, answering the question that was on her mind. 

“Oh…” Blake responded. “You, uh, wanna go first then?”

The blonde-haired girl paused for a moment, but then said, to Blake’s surprise, “Let’s go together.” 

Blake squinted at her, trying to detect any more schemes. “You’re not going to just let me go and then stay behind, are you?” 

_ Oh, fuck _ . 

Red flashed across Yang’s eyes.

_ Blake Belladonna, you complete idiot.  _

“No. This time I actually have a choice.” 

How on Remnant was it possible for one girl to be so stupid? Of all the ways Blake could have phrased that, she just  _ had _ to pick the one that poked the wound.  

No, not poked. More like stabbed. With a barbed spear. That was also charged with electricity.

Blake made a silent prayer that she wouldn’t survive this fall. 

“Whatever, let’s go. One, two, three!”

It was the fastest countdown ever made, and before she could react they were leaping through the air and plunging (hopefully) to their deaths.  

Blake had spent her entire life dropping from heights much greater than this one. She’d jumped off of towering tree branches, she’d somersaulted off of skyscrapers, she’d even hurtled off a mountain and landed with ease on a moving train car. And never once had she ever cried out. 

This time she screamed the whole way down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo this chapter wasn't actually planned, but I realized that I needed to explain Blake's POV a bit more, and then I just couldn't stop writing. I was going to include a water fight at the end, but it was getting too long heheh. Maybe I'll do a oneshot later. 
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed! :) The fluffiness of this chapter was fun to write, but the next one will be intense, so get ready.


	5. Evasion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO POST. Life got crazy for me with applying to grad school and this sort of took a back burner once Vol 5 ended. And honestly, this chapter proved to be incredibly difficult for me to write! You'll see why :)

FWEEEEEEEEE.

Blake’s ears exploded.

Next to her, Weiss wasn’t faring any better. A loud THUNK informed Blake that her roommate had gracelessly fallen out of bed.

“I thought we agreed: no whistle!”

The source of the upsetting disturbance snickered. “And I thought we agreed that you can’t control me?”

Weiss pointed at the door and one of her glyphs appeared, slamming it shut in Ruby’s face.

Their leader pounded on the door and yelled, “Just be ready to go in half an hour! Remember, we’re having a team practice today!”

Weiss picked herself up off the floor and crawled back into bed. “I swear, that girl being a morning person is just unfair.”

Blake secretly agreed. It was funny, really, that the two people on the team most likely to enjoy the morning were actually the ones who had to be dragged tooth and nail out of bed every day. Yang, with her sunny attitude, and Weiss, with her productive streak, were surprisingly both extremely cranky on the days they were forced to wake up before noon.

Normally, Blake herself liked to be up early enough to have a cup of tea and listen to the cheerful chorus of birds flying around outside. Mornings offered her a very rare peace and quiet.

But after their impromptu trek up the mountains the day before, Blake really had been hoping for a couple extra hours of sleep. Unfortunately, spurred on by their splash fight at the waterfall, Ruby had decided that it was time for a team practice. Although each of them had kept up their training in one way or another, they had still spent months apart. If they wanted to be ready for the inevitable battle at Haven, they needed to make sure that they could still work together.     

Which was all good and well, except Blake wasn’t sure that they could.

An angry Yang was terrifying enough. An angry, _heavily armed_ Yang was almost enough to send her back to Menagerie with her tail between her legs.

When she voiced her concerns to Weiss, the girl merely shrugged. “If this is what it takes to get you two to talk, then so be it.”

 _Glad I have a supportive roommate_ , Blake thought to herself.

Deciding there was no longer any point in attempting to sleep, she rolled out of bed and changed out of her yukata into her new combat outfit. Picking up Gambol Shroud, she turned one last time and rolled her eyes at Weiss, who had buried herself back under the covers.

“You know, you would be less miserable if you just accepted that the day was starting.”

Weiss grumbled something from underneath her blanket fortress that sounded vaguely like, “Shut it, Belladonna.”  

Blake chuckled lightly and closed the door. She was instantly assaulted by the smells of what she sincerely hoped was breakfast food. Following her nose, she made her way towards the kitchen and was pleased to find Ren making eggs and bacon.

“You’re just in time,” he said, tossing some onto a plate for her. He pointed at a pot of steaming brown liquid. “Coffee?”

She turned up her nose. Despite her parents’ attempts to cultivate her taste for coffee, she just couldn’t seem to develop a liking for the stuff. To her it just tasted like gross hot bean juice. In Blake’s opinion, if you have to add endless amounts of cream and sugar to something in order to cover up its taste then you probably shouldn’t be drinking it.

“No, thanks. Do we have any hot water?”

Ren pointed towards the kettle, and Blake busied herself making a cup of tea. Today she was feeling Oolong, she decided.

Plate of food in one hand and mug of tea in the other, she walked out of the kitchen and entered the common room where she found Ruby and Jaune halfway through their own breakfasts.

“Mahnin Bwae,” Ruby said through a mouthful of toast.

Blake sat down next to her and smiled. “Good morning, Ruby.”

The younger girl swallowed. “Jaune and I were just talking about team combo attacks! I have some great new ideas, I can’t wait to try them out. I’m so glad we finally have the team back together!”

Her eyes widened as she realized what she’d said. She turned to Jaune, exclaiming, “I mean, not that it’s not awesome fighting with you guys! Team RNJR all the way!”

Jaune waved her off, but as he went back to his eggs Blake saw his shoulders hunch and a crease form on his forehead. A wave of sympathy washed over her.

She couldn’t imagine what it must be like to watch your friends’ team reunite, having to be happy for them while being painfully aware that your team will never have their own reunion.

Pyrrha’s death had affected them all, but it was of course hardest for her team. Blake didn’t even want to think about what she would do if anything happened to her own teammates. Yang losing her arm was bad enough.

“Will you guys be joining us today?” she said in an attempt to break up the awkward silence.

“We might stop by to watch but we’re all pretty tired after yesterday. Besides, we’ve already had a lot of practice fighting together,” Jaune responded.

“Yeah, we sure showed that Nuckelavee who’s boss!” Ruby chimed in energetically. Blake had been informed the day before all about the Nuckelavee fight, demonstrations and sound effects included.

“Only after you all almost died, if my memory serves me correctly.”

Blake really shouldn’t still be surprised every time Yang entered the room (after all, they _did_ share a house together), but the involuntary jolt upon hearing her voice caused her fork to clatter out of her hand and onto her plate. Yang’s eyes briefly snapped in her direction.   

Ruby waved her hand at Yang’s words. “Pshh, details.”  

After the trip to the waterfall, tension between Yang and Blake had only increased. Once they’d regretfully survived their jump, Yang had ignored what had transpired and returned to pretending that everything was fine between them. She hadn’t said a word about the incident, and if it weren’t for their overtly stiff interactions Blake might have thought she’d forgotten about it.   

Unfortunately, Yang was not one to easily forget.

The blonde girl rolled her eyes and joined everyone at the table. “So anyway, where are we even practicing today?”

“At Haven! I got permission from Professor Lionheart to use the courtyard. There’s a big open space where students usually train that we can use.”

“Sweeeet. That was nice of him to let us.”

“Yeah, so try not to destroy the place.” They all looked up. Slouching in the doorway was Qrow, one hand in his back pocket and another holding up a steaming mug.

Ruby placed her hand on her chest, feigning offence. “Uncle Qrow, when have I ever destroyed anything?”

Qrow raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure Tai would have fun answering that one. Let’s see: broken windows, trampled sunflowers, the exploded bird house.”

“Uhh…”

“Fist sized holes in the TV, couches sliced in half, that one time Zwei ended up on the roof.” He smiled knowingly. “I can continue.”

Ruby cowered guiltily behind her glass of apple juice.

“Besides, you’re not the one I’m worried about,” he added with a quick glance towards Yang, and then, to her appall, towards Blake.  

Not seeming to have caught on to Qrow’s implications, Ruby thankfully said, “We’ll be fiiiine,” and then shoved a whole piece of bacon in her mouth.  

Blake felt her entire face grow red as she pointedly avoided looking in Yang’s direction.

It couldn’t go that badly, could it?

Oh, how wrong she was.  
  


* * *  
  


“Alright team RWBY, listen up!”

They were sprawled out on the ground of the courtyard of Haven Academy, their team leader standing up on a bench in front of them. The courtyard vaguely resembled the one at Beacon, with hedges lining the border and a fountain gurgling in the middle. Haven’s was nowhere near as grandiose, but it suited their needs perfectly.

Blake stretched her arms over her head, warming her body up for their imminent practice.

“I know it’s been a few months, but we’re all in better shape than ever. We’re stronger, our semblances have evolved, and we have more real world experience than any other huntresses in training.”

“Plus, we all have these sweet new outfits,” she added with a twirl.

Yang muttered something about the persistence of their combat skirts. Both Ruby and Weiss shot her a look.

“ _Anyway._ Today I want to focus on teamwork, to see where everyone’s at. We’ll go over our existing combo attacks, and if everything goes well maybe we’ll try out some new ones,” she wiggled her eyebrows.

Everyone gave her a thumbs up.

“We’ll start out with some light sparring to warm up, and then we’ll move on to something more challenging,” Ruby said with a glint in her eyes. Blake had no idea what that could possibly mean, but decided that she’d find out sooner or later.

Once they’d finished stretching, Ruby jumped down from her podium. “Alright, let’s partner up! We’ll cycle through all of the pairs, just so we can all get to know each other’s fighting styles again.”

Momentary panic seized Blake. Usually her and Yang would partner up first, but…

“Blake! Be my partner?” Ruby suddenly said.

She sighed in relief. Maybe her leader really had thought this out.

They spread out. Ruby and her took the left side of the fountain, and Weiss and Yang took the right. She wanted to watch them spar, but Ruby pulled her back to her own fight.

“Okay Blake. I won’t go easy on you! I’ve got some new tricks up my sleeve.”

“Bring it on.” She unsheathed Gambol Shroud.

Ruby blew her whistle and immediately took off in a sprint, dodging the slash Blake had directed at her. She tried to retaliate by swinging her scythe from behind Blake, but Blake was equally as fast. She jumped forward into a front flip, activating her semblance and leaving behind an ice clone that caught Crescent Rose mid swing. Ruby growled.

Blake smiled. Using dust to power her semblance was the greatest discovery she’d ever made.

With the recoil from a shot of its gun, the blade portion of Crescent Rose pulled back and broke free of the ice. Ruby circled around her.

Everyone on team RWBY knew that Ruby’s hand-to-hand combat skills were abysmal, and Blake decided to take advantage of that. She used one of her shadow clones to distract Ruby while she got in close and attacked from the side.

To her surprise, though, Ruby’s arm flew up to block her. She ducked under Blake’s outstretched sword, spun around while tossing Crescent Rose to her other hand, and then swung at Blake with her fist.

The punch wasn’t very hard, but it caught Blake off guard and she was hit square in the chest.

“What the…?”

“YES!” Ruby cheered. “Take that Professor Ozpin. Who sucks at hand-to-hand now!”

Blake shook off her astonishment and resumed her attack. Ruby jumped out of the way, and suddenly the girl was sprinting around her in a wide arc. As she gained speed, she burst into a swirl of rose petals and Blake was enveloped in a tornado of red.    

She spun around in confusion, trying to pinpoint the girl’s body, but she simply wasn’t _there_.

Ruby had _become_ the rose petals.

How on earth was she supposed to catch someone scattered into hundreds of pieces?

The gears in Blake’s mind whirred until they finally clicked into place. She quickly released her grip on one half of Gambol Shroud, and propelled herself into the air up and out of the rose tunnel. Where she’d stood seconds before, part of her weapon remained embedded in a stone copy of herself.

Before Ruby could notice that she had escaped, she used her anchor to swing around the tornado as gravity pulled her towards the ground. Realizing that Blake was gone, Ruby slowed down her speed and the petals came together to re-form her body. Unfortunately for her, Blake had timed it perfectly so that the second Ruby rematerialized, she was immediately wrapped up by Gambol Shroud’s ribbon and tightly secured to the stone figure.

“Nice try,” Blake smirked.

Ruby pouted. “I was so close! I really thought I’d gotten you with my semblance.”  

“I certainly wasn’t expecting it.” She walked over to her leader and unwrapped her.

As the both of them caught their breath, they looked over towards their other teammates to see how they were faring. Their battle seemed to have just ended as well, with Weiss caught in chokehold and Myrtenaster laying a few feet away from her.  

“I would have beaten you if you’d let me use my summoning!”

Yang released her. “Where’s the fun in that? Fight your own battles, Ice Queen.”

Weiss grumbled and walked over to pick up her sword. They took a break to drink water, recounting both fights while discussing their mistakes and pointing out areas for improvement. Then it was time for round 2.

This time, Blake faced off against Weiss. The two of them were an interesting match, since of team RWBY they had the most similar fighting styles. Both were incredibly versatile, using their semblances to broaden their attack and dodge options. In the end, though, Weiss used her time dilation glyphs to speed up her strikes and blow through Blake’s shadow clones. The fight ended with Myrtenaster pointed at Blake’s throat.

“You need to practice, Belladonna.”

She rolled her eyes. “Not all of us have training studios in our house.”   

Weiss protested, but Blake was distracted by Ruby and Yang who were still locked in combat.

“Ready to fight her?”

Blake sighed and resheathed her sword. “I’m not sure this is a good idea.”

“Neither am I. But Ruby was adamant about it…”

She squinted, confused. “Why?”

“No idea. You know her: cryptic as ever.” Her eyes followed the cloaked girl, who was now being helped up from the ground by her sister. “But she usually makes the right decisions.”

Weiss’ eyes widened in horror at her accidental admission. “But don’t tell her I said that!” she hastily exclaimed.

Blake smiled. “Your secret respect for our leader is safe with me.”

 

They all met back at the fountain, splashed their faces with some water, and then prepared for the last round. The actual partner match-up should have been fun, since those pairs were the ones who knew each other’s fighting styles more intimately, but for the first time in her life Blake was scared to face off against Yang.

She knew what to expect. Yang had always been a “punch first ask questions later” kind of girl, and that translated directly into her combat. She was by far the strongest hand-to-hand fighter of the group, and she always came hard and fast. Because of her strength and her semblance, Yang could take a hit from a truck and walk it off like nothing happened. She had her weaknesses, though, and Blake intended to exploit them. Her own semblance worked perfectly against someone like Yang, whose punches were weak against combatants with excellent agility and elusiveness.   

It didn’t matter how hard you could punch if none of those punches landed, and Yang Xiao Long’s downfall had always been that she was predictable.

And so Blake was shocked when she found out that, for the first time ever, she _couldn’t_ predict her.

In the past, Yang had liked to open her fights on her own terms. She would always be the first to make a quick strike, before her opponent had the chance to prepare. Gaining the upperhand early on was a priority for her.

Therefore as soon as Ruby’s whistle went off, Blake instinctively threw up her arms to block the anticipated attack.

But it never came.

Instead, Yang was eyeing her carefully, circling slowly around her. Watching. Waiting.

Waiting?

Blake had no idea what was happening. This had never happened before.

The two of them remained locked in a slow, tense dance of black and yellow until finally Blake’s patience broke and she collapsed Gambol Shroud into its gun form. As she did so, she jumped out of a shadow clone and fired towards Yang.

Unfortunately, Yang anticipated her trick. She ran forward, easily dodging the bullets directed at her. Blake extended her gun back into a sword, ready to deflect the shots that Yang would surely return, but once again they never came. The blonde girl came closer and closer, and at the last second she punched the air behind her, seemingly powering her charge. Blake waited until the inches between them closed and then dove sideways out of one of her clones, intending to encase Yang’s arm in a statue of rock.

But Yang’s speed boost had propelled her downwards, and rather than landing a punch at Blake’s chest, she opened her fist and closed it around the leg of the shadow clone. Redirecting her momentum, she expertly swung around the statue, extending her legs towards the exact spot where Blake was now standing. Blake’s eyes widened in shock as she realized what was happening, and she quickly backhandspringed over the kick that had attempted to trip her.

Yang let go of her tether and was propelled across the courtyard, spinning around mid-air and landing on all fours, her hands clutching at the ground to stop herself. Her eyes twinkled dangerously.

The speed at which she’d just moved, the cleverness of her attack, the absence of any direct blows… it all unnerved Blake more than anything else Yang could have done. She’d expected to be punched. She hadn’t expected this.     

She didn’t have much time to dwell on it, though, because suddenly Yang was running at her again and this time she was firing her guns. Blake easily deflected the bullets with her sword, and then Yang was upon her. She slashed and whirled, her movements like lightning, but Yang evaded every single one, ending every dodge with a strike of her own.

Blake clenched her teeth in frustration. How was Yang _doing_ this? She was fighting completely differently than she had in the past, actively searching for the right opportunity to strike rather than simply throwing everything she got and hoping something hit.

Yang’s eyes were _definitely_ shining with glee now, as if she knew exactly what was going through her partner’s mind. And in Blake’s confusion, she finally found her opening. As Blake swung Gambol Shroud at her, Yang ducked under the familiar sword and kicked at Blake’s shins.

She let out a cry as, this time, her legs flew out from under her and she hurtled towards the ground. Yang spun around to face her, reaching out to grab something, and suddenly she felt Gambol Shroud fly out of her hand.

Blake landed with a hard _thud_ , and when she looked up Yang was standing over her pointing her own sword at her throat.

Her eyes locked with cool lavender ones, so steely they almost appeared grey.

The sword looming over her spun in Yang’s hand until the handle was once again facing Blake. She slowly sat up and took it tentatively.

“Didn’t see that one coming, did you?” Yang said emotionlessly, before turning and walking away.

Blake gaped. No, she certainly had not. She picked herself up off the ground and walked over to her friends, where Ruby was dethawing her legs and Weiss was angrily wringing out her clothes after an unexpected swim in the fountain.

After everyone had been returned to their former states, Ruby explained what was next on the agenda for the day. They would be fighting some enemies together, as a team.

“Okay, but what are we fighting? The fountain?” Yang smirked towards a still damp Weiss. “Already tried that one.”

Ruby smiled, as if she’d been waiting all day for that question. “Weiss?”

Weiss stopped glaring at Yang and closed her eyes. A glowing white glyph appeared beside her, and suddenly a gust of chill wind blew over them. When Blake looked again, she saw a large icy blue beowolf pawing the ground next to her teammate.

Yang’s smirk faded into awe. “Have I mentioned how cool it is that you can do that now?”

“You could do to mention it a tad more often,” Weiss responded.

The first round of this new training scheme turned out to be another warm up, with the four of them fighting four beowolves. They were the least threatening of the Grimm, and as expected Blake took hers down easily. She glanced around in time to see the three others likewise dissolving through the air in a white mist.

“Aw come on Weiss, we can take more than that!” Yang shouted.

“Be careful what you wish for, Yang Xiao Long. I have plenty more in store for you.”

Yang pounded her fists together, just like she’d used to. “Bring it on, Schnee!”

This time, Weiss stepped back. She took a deep breath, then spun around and stabbed down with Myrtenaster. Two glyphs immediately bloomed, one on the ground a few feet away and one high up in the sky. Blake watched as the air condensed between the glyphs, pulling together blue wisps of mist that slowly formed shape. And then it happened again, and again, until the earth vibrated with a horrible metallic buzzing and the sky was obstructed by several large, winged creatures each with barbed appendages and one razor sharp stinger.

Blake’s jaw dropped. “Lancers,” she said hoarsely.  

“You defeated an entire swarm of lancers?” Yang was equally in disbelief at what she was seeing.

Their white-haired teammate squinted her eyes. “I already told you that!”

Yang scratched her head, looking slightly guilty. “Well yeah, but I didn’t, like, actually believe you.”

“I’m saving the queen for you,” Weiss said icily.  

Blake would have said the scene before her was rather comical, with these enormous creatures just bobbing up and down in the air waiting for their orders, if it weren’t for the fact that even in dust form they were downright terrifying. Their soulless blue eyes stared cruelly down at her, and she wondered what twisted god had written them into existence. The queen was the worst of them all, her body easily three times the size of her workers, with protruding scales that Blake knew from Grimm 101 class could be used as deadly projectiles.

Ruby swung her scythe behind her and yelled, “Alright team RWBY. GO!”  

Immediately the lancers sped towards them.

Their team started to spread out in different directions, hoping to break up the swarm.

Blake was sure that she heard Yang laugh while yelling, “they’re beelining for us!” but then she was distracted by the stinger that had almost impaled her. She tried to swipe at it with her sword, but all too soon it was retracted back into the lancer’s body.

The lancer attacking her was still too far away to take any direct hits from her sword, and her gun would be useless against such a heavily armored enemy, but fortunately Gambol Shroud was well-equipped for long range attacks.

She waited for the right moment until its underbelly was exposed, and then she hurled her weapon as hard as she could straight through the air. The lancer screeched in anger as the sword embedded itself within soft flesh.

 _Taste of your own medicine,_ Blake smirked.

She pulled down on the ribbon laced through her sword, and the lancer was forcibly dragged towards the hard ground below.   

Right towards Yang.

“YANG!” she shouted in desperation.

The blonde girl, who was firing missiles at another lancer, looked up and jumped out of the way last second.

Yang growled, her eyes suddenly red. “WATCH IT, BLAKE,” she yelled. She turned away and doubled her efforts in pummeling her lancer, showering the area around her with empty bullet shells. The lancer shot out its stinger and Blake watched as Yang just stood there, waiting for it. But rather than dodge it like she had while sparring with Blake, she let it hit her square in the chest.

Blake cried out, but of course there was nothing to worry about, because three seconds later Yang got to her feet, her eyes burning even redder and the ends of her hair flickering. She yelled, and this time when the lancer sent out its stinger she grabbed it out of the air and used it to slam its whole body into the ground. The lancer disintegrated into white dust immediately upon impact. Yang’s eyes flashed back to violet.  

 _Okay then,_  she thought, looking at her own lancer which was still twitching with life. She went to go finish it off, but then Ruby sliced it in half and sent her a thumbs up.

Blake started to watch Yang again, trying to figure out what was up with her, but then she heard someone cry “Blake!”

She spun around and made eye contact with Weiss, who pointed at the sky where she’d made several glyphs appear. Blake nodded her understanding before running as fast as she could and jumping onto the first glyph. She felt her body speed up as she bounced between the platforms, emerging right under another lancer. She threw Gambol Shroud at its belly again, except this time she used her momentum to swing up around it and land gracefully on its back.

It screeched in annoyance and tried to shake her off, but she quickly slashed at its wings. They started plummeting towards the ground, but Blake had already jumped off its back towards another lancer that had been about to catch Ruby unaware. She slashed its head off and it too disappeared in white smoke.    

“Nice one!” Weiss yelled at her.

Ruby suddenly came flying through the air and landed next to her partner. “Weiss, ice flower!”

“Affirmative,” Weiss said, before pointing her sword and sending out three glyphs at its tip.

Ruby spun her scythe until it became lodged in the ground in front of her and then started shooting at the remaining lancers. As the bullets passed through Weiss’ glyphs, they became swirling balls of energy that exploded into clumps of ice upon impact.

“Blake, go help Yang!” her leader shouted between firings.

Blake had been worried she’d say that. Nevertheless, she took off running towards her own partner who was busy punching a lancer through another one. In Yang’s preoccupation with the two in front of her, though, she hadn’t noticed a third fly up behind her.

A third, that was suspiciously much larger than the others. The queen.

Blake knew that she wouldn’t make it in time, so she shouted, “YANG, BEHIND YOU!”

Her partner spun around to face an onslaught of spines raining down on her. She threw up her arms to deflect them, but there were too many. If it were anyone else their aura would have shattered and their body sliced to bits, but it was Yang, and her semblance allowed her to return the assault with even greater power.

“Blake, I don’t need your help!”

She’d finally made it to Yang, and she started to protest but was interrupted by spines that were now being sent her way too. Fortunately, though, her sword was much more efficient at deflecting them than a pair of arms were.

“It’s too powerful, you can’t take it down alone!”

Yang merely growled and pushed back harder. “I said stay out of this!”

She propelled herself into the air, intending to land a direct hit, but was struck by the queen lancer’s stinger. She flew backwards and was pinned to the ground.

The queen roared and readied herself to shoot out more spines and finish off Yang for good. Blake watched in agony, not wanting to ignore Yang’s wishes but not willing to sit by and do nothing either.  

Instinct made the choice for her, and suddenly she was rushing forward and slicing her sword clean through the stinger.

The queen lancer’s scream sent chills down Blake’s spine.  

Yang pulled the detached stinger off of her and leapt to her feet, suddenly free. Her eyes were still red, but she didn’t have a chance to say anything before they heard Ruby yell from across the courtyard, “Blake! Yang! Bumblebee!”

She growled.

“Yang!” Blake shouted. The queen had recovered from the attack and was readying herself to release all of her fury.

“FINE!”

Without looking at her partner, the blonde girl took off running in a wide arc. Blake waited and then finally hurled Gambol Shroud towards her. She caught it in one hand and then used the gun of the other to propel herself forward. Blake pulled back in the ribbon while pivoting, using her own strength to add to Yang’s increasing momentum. As Yang pivoted through the air, she formed a circle of fire around them: first red, and then orange, and then finally a blinding, burning yellow. And finally, just as the lancer went in for her final attack, Yang let go of the ribbon. She hurtled into the sky like a comet heading the wrong direction back into space, her eyes ignited with the molten red of an erupting volcano, her hair flaming as if powered by the rays of the sun itself.  

It never failed to be the most beautiful and most terrifying sight Blake had ever seen.

And then her fist connected head-on with the lancer, which in comparison now looked pitifully underwhelming, and it exploded into a firework of blue and yellow.

Yang landed with her fist against the ground, breathing heavily.

“WOOOO GO TEAM! Back at it again!”

Blake looked over to find Ruby and Weiss, jumping up and down and cheering after having seemingly defeated all of the remaining lancers.

She turned back to Yang, expecting her eyes to still be red, but when she finally looked up they had faded back to that stormy grey-purple that Blake had seen earlier.  

Even more unsettling than her eyes was the fact that she wouldn’t say a single word to Blake. She refused to even meet her gaze. She simply walked past her and went to go punch her sister on the shoulder and congratulate Weiss for actually presenting her with a challenge.

Blake watched her go.

She knew what it was like to be alone. She had endured a self-imposed isolation ever since the day she severed ties with the White Fang. Being alone was safer, both for her and for everyone around her. It offered her a kind of security.  

But in that moment, watching her three teammates laugh together from afar, Blake felt a completely new type of loneliness. One she didn’t think she could bear.

It was the loneliness of finally being with the people you love and yet feeling as though they were still a million miles away.

The loneliness of knowing that you’re no longer part of their family.

She turned away, pretending to busy herself with gathering up Gambol Shroud, blinking back the tears in her eyes.

Because they were tears that she had no right to, weren’t they? She had no one else to blame but herself.

Blake turned back towards her team and was surprised to find Weiss staring at her. They locked eyes, and although mostly unreadable Blake thought that she saw an inkling of pity swirling within the ice blue pair.

She sighed and walked towards them, feeling increasingly uncomfortable and out of place until Ruby, bless her soul, quite literally threw herself onto Blake.

“BLAAAAAKE THAT WAS AWESOME!” she squealed, her entire body hanging from Blake’s neck. “The way you just rode on top of that one lancer like you controlled it!”

She allowed herself a small smile. “Thanks, Ruby. You were pretty great too.”

“Pshh nah. It was all you guys.”

“So what next?” Yang interrupted, tapping her foot impatiently with her hand on her hip. “You got anything else up your sleeve, Schnee?”

Ruby and Weiss exchanged a glance.

“Well, that was supposed to be the big battle for the day… I was hoping to go over some new ideas, maybe test them out with something easy to make sure everything goes smoothly.”

“Whaaaat? But now we’re all fired up!” Yang slammed her fists together as if to prove it. “Come on, we can take it.”

Ruby bit her lip.

The blonde girl glanced slyly towards Ruby’s second in command. “Unless that’s all you’ve got… I just figured, being a Schnee and everything, you’d have defeated something much more powerful, but.... I guess you can’t all be so talented.”

Ruby winced.

Weiss’ eyebrow twitched in anger and before anyone could say anything they were all knocked off of their feet by a gust of wind.

The sound of something metallic slamming into the ground resonating throughout the courtyard, and when the dust cleared there was an enormous icy figure staring down at Yang from directly behind her.

Yang grinned wickedly.

“You want to get your ass handed to you? Be my guest.” Weiss said coldly.

The giant knight stood motionlessly over them, waiting for its orders. Its presence chilled the air around them, so much so that Blake could see her own breath

“Four on one? We can take it,” Blake said, hoping her support would gratify Yang. And she wasn’t lying - on a normal day they would absolutely crush it. They’d already 4v1’d a giant mech suit before, and that time they had quite literally blown it to pieces. Today wasn’t a normal day, though, and in reality she was pretty apprehensive about all of them fighting the same target. At least with the lancers they could split up; this was all or nothing.

Which probably had been Ruby’s concern, considering how tense things were between her and Yang, but it was too late now. There was no way Yang or Weiss would back down from the challenge at hand.   

Unfortunately Yang pretended that she didn’t hear Blake speak, and said in response to Weiss, “I’ll try not to break your toy. No promises, though.”

Weiss merely rolled her eyes in true “I’d like to see you try” fashion. “Okay team RWBY.” She turned to Ruby. “On your mark.”

“GO!”

The knight sprung to life.

It swiped at Yang who immediately rolled out of the way. She hopped back up onto her feet and started firing bullets at it.

The knight raised its sword to swing at her, but spun around when it realized it was being assaulted with bursts of fire from Weiss’ own sword.

Before it could attack again, though, Blake got its attention by firing Gambol Shroud. She was then saved in turn from its retaliation by Ruby slicing at it with Crescent Rose.

Their gimmick only held up momentarily, though, until the knight was smart enough to realize what was happening and decided to ignore everyone else and focus on Ruby. It immediately swung its sword at her, forcing her to use the recoil of her gun to propel backwards and out of the way of the deadly weapon.

Ruby turned her head towards Weiss’ direction, about to call out to her, but her partner was already by her side.

“Slow it down?” Weiss said.

“You read my mind.”

For all of its power, the knight was not quick to recover, allowing the two girls enough time to regroup and set up for their attack.

“Blake, Yang, distract it” Ruby shouted.

Blake heard the familiar sound of Yang reloading her arm guns, followed by the high pitched whine of her long range missiles twirling through the air. They exploded one by one in a flash of red, sending sparks flying all around the knight’s head.

As the knight turned, Blake added her own shots, this time fueled by dust to produce balls of electricity that exploded alongside Yang’s.

The knight roared in anger and spun around to block the merciless onslaught, not realizing that this was the opportunity the attackers at its front were waiting for. Immediately shards of ice came shooting towards the beast, encasing its feet with enormous, jagged frozen blocks.

“Blake! Checkmate!” Weiss called to her from across the courtyard.

“Got it!” she shouted back, bracing herself for the golden glyph that Weiss shot at her. The time dilation glyph filled her with the extra energy needed to perform their team attack, and she slashed Gambol Shroud again and again, sending beams of purple energy towards the giant that caused it to fall backwards over its own legs which were still glued in place.

Before it had even hit the ground, Yang was running towards it. She leapt into the air to gain momentum and then swung her fist towards the ground, aiming to land a direct hit on the knight. Unfortunately, the knight had learned a few tricks from Weiss herself and at the last second completely vanished. Yang’s fist connected with concrete and she swore in frustration.

“Yang, above you!” Ruby yelled frantically.

Yang whipped her head around to the air above her but the knight that used its own glyphs to teleport itself above her was already descending, its own metal fist outstretched. It slammed square into her, knocking her into the ground with tremendous force.  

Blake winced. Even though Yang could handle the hit, there was no way it wasn’t going to hurt.

Not wanting the knight to land another blow, Weiss jumped into action, using her own glyphs to quickly pull Yang out of the way and deposit her next to Blake.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Yang grunted. “Nothing I can’t handle.” She was breathing heavily, presumably as a result of just having been completely winded, and she certainly _looked_ pretty battered, but Blake could see that fire igniting in her eyes again.

“Hey Weiss?” they heard Ruby call.

“Yeah?”

“Know what time it is?”

Blake could hear Weiss rolling her eyes all the way from the other side of the courtyard. “No, Ruby. Why don’t you enlighten us.”

“It starts with bumble, and ends wiiiiiiiith...” their leader yelled excitedly.

Weiss turned to the two of them. “Either you two get on with it and kill this thing now, or I let it kill me.”

“...bee!”

“Only since you asked so nicely,” Yang responded before turning to Blake. “Let’s do this, I guess.”

Blake nodded solemnly and her partner took off running. The knight targeted in on Blake and started stalking towards her. The cold blue eyes staring her down were a stark contrast to that of Yang’s, but somehow not as terrifying.

It raised its sword.

_Okay. Still pretty terrifying._

“NOW!”

Blake threw half of Gambol Shroud as hard as she could towards her flaming partner, who caught it expertly and began to swing towards the knight. Noticing what was happening, the knight turned towards Yang and raised its fist to strike her down. Blake pulled down on the end of the ribbon just as she always did so that Yang could get one last burst of speed.

Except something was off this time. The ribbon grew taught, as it normally did, but then it never released. Yang was still holding onto it.

Panic filled Blake as she watched Yang shoot into the air above the knight, propelled by one final blast from her gun. And Blake, who was completely caught off guard by this new feat, felt Gambol Shroud yanked out of her hands by the unexpected upward force.    

“AHHHHHH!”

No longer tethered to the ground, Yang continued hurtling upward until finally she fell and slammed into the ground on the other side of the knight.  

Everyone was silent.

The knight looked around in confusion, before finally remembering that it was trying to kill Blake and started coming towards her again.

Behind it, Yang got to her feet, her hair flaming and her eyes burning. She, too, started angrily walking towards Blake until her and the knight were directly side by side.

Blake really wasn’t sure which one she was more afraid of. All she knew was that, one way or another, she wasn’t making it out of here alive.

Sensing someone else’s presence, the knight turned its head towards Yang just in time for her fist, powered now by her fully energized semblance, to smash it into hundreds of shards of ice that exploded into an enormous cloud of dust.

Blake gulped.

“BLAKE BELLADONNA!”

She forced her eyes to turn from where the knight had previously been standing to the enraged blonde girl still stalking towards her.

“WHAT ON EARTH WAS THAT?” Yang came to a full stop right in front of her, her hands slamming onto her hips.

“I’m sorry-” Blake started to say.

“Are you _trying_ to get us killed?

“No, I didn’t mean to-”

Yang wouldn’t let her finish though. “Just because _you’re_ out of practice doesn’t mean the rest of us should have to suffer for it!”

Blake stopped. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me! Not all of us have been wasting time on the beach. _Some_ of us have actually been training.”

Blake stared at her, affronted. She had been ready to surrender, to allow Yang to verbally assault her, but after everything she’d been through recently the insinuation that she’d simply been wasting her time on vacation was too much. Something inside her snapped. 

“Oh okay, sure, it’s not like I’ve spent the past few months risking my life in order to take down a corrupt organization! I was almost captured, my _parents_ were almost killed, our house burned to the ground! And here you are telling me that I haven’t been _training_ , that I’ve been, what, lounging on the beach drinking margaritas?

Still on the other side of the courtyard, Ruby turned to Weiss and said, “is this what we sounded like back in the day?”

Weiss elbowed her telling her to shut up, before muttering, “No. We were worse.”

The truth of what had happened to Blake during the months she’d been away made Yang falter. Her eyes briefly widened in surprise and concern, but then her indignation returned.

“Yeah, ‘cause I’m supposed to know what you’ve been doing all this time.”

Blake knew that she should back down, that Yang was right to be angry, but Blake’s own anger and frustration with how she had been treated since she’d returned had been awakened. She felt the words tumble out of her mouth as she said, “Maybe you should have asked!”

“Maybe you should have told me!” Yang yelled back. “You could have left a _god-damned note_!”

Blake looked away, unable to respond.

“But no, even after all this time, you still have no idea how to communicate! All you know how to do is _leave_ when things get tough!” She jabbed her finger out at her.

Blake felt as though she’d been punched in the stomach by the giant knight. “Oh, you want to talk about communication? Like how just now you told me you were going to swing up at the last second instead of let go?”

Yang narrowed her eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry that I’m not allowed to change up my fighting. I didn’t know all I’m good for to you is punching things.”

Her hands balled into fists, annoyed at Yang’s insistence on throwing this back at her. “I never said that! But as long as I’ve known you your fighting style has been the same; how was I supposed to know that it’s changed?”

Yang threw her arms to her side. “WELL MAYBE YOU WOULD HAVE KNOWN IF YOU’D STUCK AROUND LONG ENOUGH TO FIND OUT!”

The weight at the confession of the real reason Yang was mad, the unspoken source of the suffocating tension, hung in the air.

After a moment, Yang seemed to collapse into herself, her anger dissipating as the underlying sorrow finally seeped through.

“But instead you _left_. Just like everyone always does.” Her head fell down, hiding her face. “Just like she did.”

The sight of Yang like this, so completely and utterly defeated, was more than Blake could handle. _She_ had done this.

“You think I wanted to leave?” she said softly.

Yang’s eyes flashed, her anger quickly covering up the brief moment of vulnerability. “I DON’T KNOW!” she shouted. “I DONT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT YOU, BLAKE!”

Blake’s heart screamed. She couldn’t take it anymore, couldn’t take the truths that Yang was shouted at her. She desperately reached up and grabbed Yang’s metal arm, dragging it towards her chest.

“Go on, then. Hit me!” she said amidst tears. “I know you want to. I deserve it!”

Yang’s eyes immediately flashed to a warm violet. She let all of her muscles go, her arm held up only by the black-haired girl clutching it. “Blake,” she said.

“JUST DO IT!”

She pulled her arm back. “I’m _not_ him,” she said firmly.

“And I’m not her!” Blake yelled.

Yang closed her eyes. “Then prove it.”

“I AM! Why do you think I’m here?”

Yang’s mouth twisted, and she turned away to hide the tears that were now flowing from her own eyes. After a moment she said, “Ruby, I’m done for today. I’ll see you back at the house,” and walked away.

Blake closed her eyes now too, unable to bear seeing Yang walk away from her again.

After a moment, a voice from behind her said, “Well, are you going to go after her or not?”

She turned to look at Weiss, before shamefully turning away, her head low.

Weiss sighed. “Come along then, Ruby. Let’s finish our practice.”

“What? Weiss, shouldn’t we-”

“Your form was atrocious in that last battle. You’ve got to improve that if you have any chance of defeating Salem,” she said, before dragging Ruby away.

Blake wiped away a tear.

Here it was, her chance to finally explain herself, to apologize to Yang, and she'd thrown it away all just because she couldn't handle the truth. 

She had traversed half the globe to come here, and yet she was still too much of a coward to say two simple words.

Yang might be the one walking out, but she was still the one running away. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so basically fight scenes are SO MUCH HARDER TO WRITE THAN I THOUGHT. I'm much more inspired by dialogue so this was quite the challenge, but I hope that it turned out okay in the end! 
> 
> From now on I'll try to be better about posting more regularly - I want to tell the rest of this story as much as you want to read it (I hope)!


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